SSE Enterprise has signed a joint development agreement with Goldsmiths, a University of London college in southeast London, to design and deliver a low carbon campus infrastructure in pursuit of the university’s ambitious net zero targets.

SSE Enterprise’s distributed energy division will consolidate all of Goldsmiths’ significant energy consuming buildings onto a centralised campus-wide heat and power network. A heat pump will be used to heat the buildings, removing the majority of gas consumption on site and reducing gas consumption by 7,850 MWh annually.

By integrating all power onto a single private network and using its own PV to power the heat pump, the university will be able to use a much higher proportion of onsite renewables, without the risk of exporting that electricity onto the grid. The new power system will expand on the university’s existing solar resources, installing a further 400kW of solar PV.

Giles Newton, Head of Public Sector & Regulated Markets at SSE Enterprise, said: “By bringing the whole campus onto a centralised system, we are able to integrate more renewable generation into its buildings without having to upgrade each one individually. While previous projects of this kind have focused on single technology solutions, we have chosen to adopt a whole systems approach..”

SSE Enterprise has designed a concept for the system and is currently supporting Goldsmiths with applications for grant funding to enable the construction of the network and potentially the long-term operation of the system over a 25-year period. The 1MWth heat pump set to be installed will supply 6,500 MWh of low carbon heat to the site every year.

Stay up to date with New Power – subscribe to our FREE weekly newsletter here

Further reading

INTERVIEW: Stephen Stead, SSE Enterprise, prepares to bid aggregated response into Balancing Market