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District Heating System in Byker

Background

The heating of the Byker estate has been linked with Newcastle's waste strategy for the last 20 years, as the fuel for the district heating scheme has mainly been based on a portion of the City's waste.

The aim of the Byker system, like most district heating schemes run by Combined Heat and Power, was to produce affordable heat to the residents and businesses of Byker. The success of Combined Heat and Power is that it uses what is noramlly wasted heat from electricity generation: instead of discarding the heat to the air through cooling towers, it is used to heat buildings and water. A District Heating Scheme has a common central heating boiler which feeds into a distribution network. Such a scheme can be very efficient, but only if the savings on producing heat more than outweigh the additional costs of distribution and maintenance of the plant.

The system of burning Refuse Derived Fuel for the Byker scheme operated from 1979 to 1998. The end of the existing contract meant that the plant no longer burnt waste. Recently the heating for Byker has been by burning coal in the plant.

Main costs of Byker District Heating Scheme
(from Newcastle City Council budget, January 2002)

Problems

Frequent leaks in the main pipe system led eventually to its complete replacement at a cost of millions. The incinerator plant has also suffered difficulties with the reliability of its old boilers, strong odours from the sorting of waste and drying of fuel, and occasions when `black snow' (large quantities of soot and ash) has fallen on nearby houses from the chimney.

Heat control and insulation within the houses is generally of low quality and inefficient. Average annual energy consumption for heating water and space per household in Byker is c.30,000 kilowatt hours, compared to an average consumption for British Gas domestic consumers (including cooking as well as heating) of c.20,000 kilowatt hours. Additionally, some old historic capital costs of installing the system are still being paid off.

The table below shows comparative costs for residents on the Byker District Heating Scheme, compared with those on a group of houses around Janet Street, which are of similar construction. The Janet Street houses are not heated from the main boiler but from a small group heating system fuelled by gas. The Janet Street charges cover 96% of the costs of the heating system, compared to only 60% of the costs being covered by the Byker charges.

Comparative weekly heating charges

Work of BAN Waste

Members of BAN Waste have held several meetings with Council Officers to investigate concerns about the costs and inefficiency of the Byker heating scheme. At the hearing of the Select Committee on 29th October 2001, experts were heard on the system and possible solutions for the estate, and the Interim Report of the Select Committee addresses the District Heating Scheme in more detail. The full text of the Interim Report, and the evidence heard by the Select Committee, are available from the Select Committee section of this website.