For several years, Bridgend Council has sought to create a district heat scheme using mine water in Caerau. It would be used to provide low-cost heating to homes in the ward, which consistently remains one of the most deprived areas of Wales and is particularly vulnerable to fuel poverty.
The project has failed to get off the ground for a whole host of reasons. In June 2021, BCBC drafted options to downscale the project. At the time, their preferred option was a mix of a demonstrator mine water heat system at Caerau Primary School and an alternative district heat scheme for the Tudor Estate.
In a new Cabinet report due to be discussed today (pdf), the project is to be downscaled even further.
Several challenges have arisen, including:
- There’s no exemption from business rates for heat network projects in Wales.
- Difficulty in getting 100 homes on the Tudor Estate to sign up to make the heat scheme financially viable (possibly a fall out from the Arbed insulation scandal).
- Big slippages in the timescales, with the project needing to be up and running by June 2023 to meet funding agreements; it’s unlikely that business rate relief and a minimum number of homes signing up could be secured by then.
BCBC was left with two options – scrap the project entirely, or focus on a much smaller scheme centred on Caerau Primary School (removing the Tudor Estate element).
The new Caerau Primary School scheme would include a demonstrator mine water heating system and a private wire connection to a local wind farm to supply low-cost energy to the school alone.
Officers have recommended that BCBC’s Cabinet opts for this Caerau Primary School project instead of abandoning it completely. However, that falls well short of what was originally envisaged and requires the entire project to be reprofiled for funding.
