Low Carbon Heating for East Devon District Council

Objective

Provide low carbon heating to 12,000 homes in East Devon.
Support growth in Cranbrook New Town and address climate emergency.

Services

Project management for all work streams.
Coordinated technical, commercial, legal, procurement, and financial aspects.
Implemented PRINCE2 methodology for effective negotiations and business case development.

Impact

Achieved 7,200 t/c02 carbon savings per year.
Established a social fund for financial hardship relief.
Connected existing heat networks for resilience and carbon benefits.
Secured government funding of £7m for further network expansion.

Objectives

East Devon District Council set the objective to provide low carbon heating to 12,000 homes in the local area and to support the growth of a new area, Cranbrook New Town.

This objective was set as a response to the climate emergency and to support its journey to net zero. In addition, this project aimed to develop a social fund to provide relief to those experiencing financial hardship from fuel poverty.

Project

Anthesis was commissioned to be the Project Manager for all work streams of the low carbon heating project for East Devon District Council and coordinate all activities, including technical work and coordination of technical, commercial, legal, procurement and financial work streams. Anthesis implemented the PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) methodology in order to facilitate the negotiations between the heat provider and corporate end-user and to develop the business case for investment.

The project included the construction of a 7.5km strategic heat main to provide heat to 12,000 new homes, plus local businesses and schools. We also supported the completion of the procurement to appoint specialist construction and operation firms for the pipework.

Impacts

7,200 t/c02 carbon savings per year achieved by the implementation of the new heat network for the 12,000 homes.
Social fund to support affordability for those in financial hardship.
Connecting two existing heat networks together to provide greater resilience and reliability as well as the applicable carbon benefits.
Anthesis secured government funding of £7m to enable the Council to complete further expansion of the network.
Estimated capital cost of £30m for construction of interconnector pipework.

I have been incredibly pleased with the Project Management support from Anthesis. We have sought this support as we do not have the capacity in-house to support our district heating projects.

Anthesis have developed excellent working relationships with the project team (consultants), officer group, and our elected members. They have ensured that marked progress is made week-on-week, providing the right level of support and challenge to the officer group, as required.

In all honesty I doubt we would have made the progress we have seen without the support of Anthesis.

Naomi Harnett Enterprise Zone Programme Manager

We were pleased to work with the Anthesis team on this project and are very happy with the support they provided. The team’s expertise in SBTs in Private Equity, combined with their attentiveness to our needs, made us comfortable to commit to the SBTi. They also made the submission process to the SBTi very smooth by helping out with the application to fulfil all requirements.

Caroline Löfgren, Chief Sustainability Officer

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