Barking and Dagenham Council has been awarded £5m by the Government’s Heat Network Investment Project (HNIP) to co-fund the creation of a landmark low carbon UK district heating scheme in Barking Town Centre.

The project has been classified as strategically significant by the GLA and builds on the borough’s ambitions to become the green capital of London. It involves a modification of the existing energy centre on the Gascoigne East Estate, Weavers Quarter, and the construction of a new large-scale energy centre.

Together these will supply over 30 GWh of low carbon heat into a new Barking Town Centre wide heat network, serving a mixture of new developments comprising over 8,000 homes, together with existing buildings.

Initially supplies of heat will come from gas-fired combined heat and power units, but over time these will be replaced with existing sources of waste heat in the borough to deliver zero carbon heat supplies.

Councillor Darren Rodwell, Leader of Barking and Dagenham Council, said:

“I am delighted to see our ambitions being supported in this way and look forward to seeing our vision for a low carbon borough come to fruition. We’re always striving for a cleaner, greener borough, for the benefit of our residents, and the delivery of this scheme is a major step forward for us.”

Notes to Editors:

The scheme will be delivered by B&D Energy Limited which is the Council’s wholly owned Energy Services Company (ESCo).

Construction of the scheme will commence in Spring 2020 and be completed by the end of 2021.

This award follows on from the previous £1m grant provided under the same Government program to the Council to co-fund the development.