UK project to analyse how consumers use low carbon heating

A UK grid operator is undertaking a project to analyse consumer behaviour to understand the exact amount of electricity capacity required to keep people comfortable, especially during the winter period across 2022-23.

UK Power Networks’ Neighbourhood Green project will obtain valuable data on how homeowners with different types of low carbon heating like heat pumps, underfloor heating or panel heaters, are using their systems to keep warm.

Real-life data

Engineers will compare real-life data from around 60 houses with a model of a “one in 20” freezing winter, where demand for electricity would be unusually high. This insight will help UK Power Networks plan its interventions efficiently to secure room on the network for more heat pumps in future.

The grid operator is forecasting that between 300,000 and 700,000 electric heat pumps will operate on its network by 2028. It reports that at peak times, when most people are at home using electricity, the average home could consume 52 per cent more energy with an electric car charger and heat pump.

UK Power Networks is planning £4.6bn investment between 2023 and 2028. The company’s investment proposal covers a range of grid upgrades to make sure people can use low carbon technologies where and when they need, so nobody gets left behind in the transition to net zero.

The project will make use of Energy System Catapult’s and PNDC’s new energy innovation test and evaluation facility – the Whole Energy Systems Accelerator (Wesa) – to monitor energy use by homes with new technologies such as heat pumps and electric car chargers, and digitally map those onto simulated networks.