Fife Council has named Vital Energi as one of only three companies included on its new Heat Metering & Billing Framework Agreement, which has been developed to serve both domestic and non-domestic properties.
As Scotland’s third largest local authority, Fife Council has created the Framework to not only serve existing and new district heating schemes under their remit but also open the Framework to other councils and housing associations. The new scheme will help to reduce procurement time and risk as the three companies have been assessed through an approved competitive tender process.
A number of local authorities are already participating in the Framework which will offer a variety of services from supply, install and commission of hardware and software through to data collection and billing services.
Regional Director, Mike Cooke said: “Fife is nationally renowned for its large-scale heat networks and is home to the £25m Guardbridge Biomass Energy Centre for the University of St Andrews and the Glenrothes Energy Network which is currently under construction. This Framework is an exciting next step in their district heating strategy as it will ensure both a high quality and value for money heat metering and billing service to end users.
“We are delighted to be on a Framework that is instilling the high quality standards by ensuring all Framework providers comply with the Heat Trust, new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Heat Network Metering & Billing Regulations 2014.”
Vital Energi have an established Metering & Billing Department which provides prepayment and credit billing solutions to 25,000 properties and a sophisticated smart metering solution, vPro2. Pictured above is a Vital Energi engineer installing a Hydraulic Interface Unit (HIU) on one of the company’s projects.
Lee Parry, Category Manager with Fife Council, commented: “Using our experience of communal and district heating schemes, we’ve created the heat metering and billing multi-supplier framework. The goal of the framework is to support organisations, who supply heat through communal and district heating schemes, to comply with the regulations. We look forward to working with suppliers and local authorities.”
Dr Tim Rotheray, Director at the Association for Decentralised Energy said: “This framework is another wonderful example of industry proactively implementing measures that will encourage the growth of the heat network market and ensure customer protection. The framework aligns with the standards and guidance already developed by industry to deliver the same objectives and it will be valuable to both Fife and potentially other councils across the UK. It is action like this which will support government in achieving its target of meeting around 20% of our heating through heat networks by 2050 and Fife council is to be applauded for its introduction.“
The Framework will run from 2018-2022.
