Developing a smart district energy scheme for Coleraine

Causeway Coast And Glens Borough Council, in partnership with University of Ulster, hope to develop Northern Ireland's first smart disctrict energy scheme in Coleraine in an effort to support existing businesses and attract more business investment to the area.

Some years ago the Council recgonised the potential to draw data centres to the area as it is the first landfall in Europe of the Kelvin Link fibre optic link with North America. In response, the Council established an Enterprise Zone to the north of the town, offering tax and planning incentives to companies located there. In order to provide enough power for energy intensive data centres, the Council commissioned a 33 kV power connection from the Loguestown substation to the Enterprise Zone and construction has now begun on a data centre in the Coleraine Enterprise Zone.

However, energy supply and the problems associated with it - high energy prices and expensive grid connections - is still an issue. To address this, Causeway Coast and Glens District Council developed a Smart Energy Programme, investigating a microgrid concept in which business consumers generate and trade energy downstream of the Loguestown 110 kV substation. The Smart Energy Programme led to a feasibility study, funded by Invest NI and carried out by Ulster University, into the potential for a heat network in Coleraine.

The study confirmed a significant and concentrated demand for heat within a relatively small area of the town whih would lend itself to a smart district heat network. The study also found that the expansion of the network to include domestic loads would add significantly to its economic viability. Industrial heat loads in Coleraine are also associated with very large (by NI standards) electricity loads, particularly AVX. Given the feasibility work already undertaken and the confluence of energy challenges in the area, Coleraine has been identified as an ideal location for the development NI’s first smart district energy scheme, to include integrated power, heat and transport.

The feasibility study found that heat demand (for industrial consumers) in Coleraine town centre is larger and more concentrated than many schemes currently being funded in Great Britain, however, following the collapse of RHI there is no explicit support mechanism for district heating in Northern Ireland.

The University of Ulster and Causeway Coast & Glens Borough Council are currently exploring funding mechanisms to support the development of the project which offers the potential to bring economic and environmental benefits to industrial and domestic consumers by integrating local generation with local energy demands. 

For more information contact Dr Patrick Keatley (p.keatley@ulster.ac.uk).