SSE Energy Solutions and National Grid have unveiled a project that could decarbonise heat networks, capturing waste heat from electricity transformers to generate hot water and space heating for homes and businesses.

Capturing waste heat and effectively turns transformers into community ‘boilers’ that serve local heat networks with a low or even zero-carbon alternative to fossil-fuel powered heat sources such as gas boilers.

The heat recovery project could initially reduce heat network carbon emissions by more than 40 per cent as against traditional gas-led systems. Critically, the technology offers a route to net-zero heat when applied to transformers served by 100 per cent renewable electricity from wind or solar farms.

The project has the potential to save millions of tonnes of CO2 every year if rolled out across National Grid’s network of transformers across England and Wales, harnessing this waste heat via SSE heat networks to serve towns and cities across the region.

Nathan Sanders, Managing Director at SSE Energy Solutions, said: “Electric power transformers generate huge amounts of heat as a by-product when electricity flows through them. At the moment, this heat is just vented directly into the atmosphere and wasted. By their very nature, electricity transformers are primarily located where people live, work and consume energy meaning that they have the potential to be incredibly valuable community assets if we apply a bit of clever thinking.”

SSE Energy Solutions’ heat recovery technology is currently undergoing a proof-of-concept trial at National Grid’s Deeside Centre for Innovation. SSE is also a founder member of the Heat Networks Industry Council, an industry-wide group collaborating with the government to unlock the potential of zero carbon heat networks and provide around 20 per cent of the UK’s heat by 2050.

Share Story: