Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy - delivery plan 2024 to 2029
Updated 01 April 2024
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1. Introduction
1.1 Purpose
The Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy (LHEES) Delivery Plan follows on from and should be considered in conjunction with North Ayrshire Council’s (NAC) LHEES.
1.2 Action Plan
LHEES Action Plan for the interventions identified within the strategy report.
Table 1 Action Plan
Action
LHEES initiation
Action champion
Timescale
1
Ensure dissemination of NAC LHEES and Delivery Plan to all key internal and external stakeholders.
Sustainability
2024
2
Update the Ayrshire Energy Master Plan and all other NAC programmes to incorporate the LHEES Delivery Plan.
Sustainability
2024
3
Set up a LHEES Working Group, with terms of reference reflecting the deliverables of the LHEES and representation from internal services and external stakeholders.
Sustainability
2024
Action
Engagement
Action champion
Timescale
4
Engage with other local authorities, Universities, NHS Trusts, and other large public sector organisations to learn from their experience of decarbonisation and LHEES considerations on large estates and opportunities for joint work.
Climate Change Steering Group
ongoing
5
Engage with the public using educational material on technologies, funding opportunities, methods to reduce heating bills, and suitable tariffs to encourage early adopters of heat pumps.
National
ongoing
6
Continued engagement with North Ayrshire’s Climate Change Steering Group (including local businesses) and community engagement through the Sustainable North Ayrshire strategy.
Sustainability
ongoing
7
Continued engagement with Scottish Power Energy Network (SPEN) and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) to monitor network constraints to coordinate transition work.
Sustainability
ongoing
8
Engage with supply chains to enable the visibility of secure pipeline of work for forthcoming years, to encourage growth of local skills and reduce the risk of local skill shortage.
Sustainability/ PMI/ Economic Development & Regeneration
ongoing
9
Work with Scottish Government and other partners to identify the long-term investment required for energy efficiency and potential heat network interventions.
Sustainability
ongoing
10
Investigate potential for heat pump apprenticeships in collaboration with local colleges and local businesses to develop local installer skills.
PMI/ Contractors/ Economic Development & Regeneration
2025
Action
Heat pumps and heat networks
Action champion
Timescale
11
Annual monitoring of gas prices compared to typical cost of heat from heat pumps and networks to ensure potential heat pumps/networks do not worsen fuel poverty.
Sustainability/ Housing
ongoing
12
Work with communities, local businesses and other public sector partners to complete feasibility studies on proposed heat network zones.
Sustainability
2026
13
Setup pilot studies/demonstration projects/field trials on heat pump deployment and best practice.
Sustainability/ PMI/ Housing
2026
14
Create a shared forum for lessons learnt from early adopters on heat pump operational best practice.
Sustainability
2024
Action
Domestic interventions
Action champion
Timescale
15
Confirm Council owned properties listed in Home Analytics are correctly represented by sharing Council housing stock data with Energy Savings Trust.
Sustainability/PMI
2024
16
Develop a pathfinder project to test the measures required for compliance with the forthcoming Social Housing Net Zero Standard, to understand capital investment, tenant engagement, running cost and other delivery considerations.
Sustainability/PMI
ongoing
17
Support the implementation of energy efficiency and decarbonisation actions identified in the Housing Asset Management Plan.
Sustainability/ PMI/ Housing
ongoing
18
Continued roll-out of Council led energy efficiency programmes (including EES:ABS, ECO Flex and Energy Smart) for privately owned domestic stock in greatest need.
Sustainability
ongoing
Action
Non-domestic interventions
Action champion
Timescale
19
Create ongoing case studies of NAC decarbonisation and fuel poverty reduction implementations, and learn from other case studies, to create a live up to date lessons learnt document.
Sustainability/ PMI
ongoing
20
Prepare heat decarbonisation plans for non-domestic Council owned buildings which use fossil fuels. This will consider district heating opportunities.
Sustainability/ PMI
2026
21
Coordinate between services to ensure any planned investments in the Council’s estate are in line with LHEES and to identify potential synergies with other LHEES actions, particularly district heating.
Sustainability/ PMI
ongoing
Action
LHEES review
Action champion
Timescale
22
Coordinate with Scottish Government and collect improved datasets for five yearly LHEES update.
Sustainability
2028
23
Undertake five yearly review and refresh of LHEES
Sustainability
2027
2. Monitoring and evaluation
2.1 Aims for monitoring and evaluation
One of the main reasons that an LHEES is split into a Strategy and Delivery Plan is to enable successful monitoring against actions that have been developed through the process. Neither document is stand-alone, but the Delivery Plan can be used to evaluate North Ayrshire Council’s progress through the 5-year LHEES cycle. The Delivery Plan is intended on being a live document that may lead to shifting priorities on actions. There are also a wide range of actions that may not be achievable collectively, and so prioritisation of actions will be needed, and an auditable and structured resource to achieve this is needed.
2.2 Proposed methodology and template
It is envisioned that the Action Plan can be used to monitor and track the measures identified. A more detailed version of this Action Plan has been provided with this Delivery Plan that adds extra fields/columns to ensure accurate progress tracking can be achieved. Some of the proposed additional data entry points are/could be:
North Ayrshire Council service lead
action champion
progress timescale
update to original action
Having a resource that is updated during future LHEES working group/meetings allows tracking and evaluation of actions throughout the five-year LHEES process as well as informing the next iteration of the strategy.
Table 2 Action Plan example
Action number
Action
NAC service lead
Action champion
Progress
Timescale
Update to original action
1
example
example
example
example
example
example
It is envisioned that the Action Plan spreadsheet could be used to track any/all energy or decarbonisation of heat projects that occur in NAC, both those lead by NAC and others that are implemented by North Ayrshire organisations (be that public or private sector organisations) for example, it does not need to be limited to the list of actions that appear in Table 1.