ESCo solution for Titanic Mill

The customer

Titanic Mill is located in the tranquil Colne Valley, in the heart of Pennine Yorkshire. The renovated mill is now a mix of residential apartments, holiday lets and a state of the art spa retreat.

The challenge

Mill Energy Services, an energy service company (ESCo), was set up to manage the demand and supply of energy at Titanic Mill, Huddersfield.

In response to the challenge of climate change, the developer of Titanic Mill, Lowry Renaissance Ltd, worked with Energy for Sustainable Development Ltd (ESD) to make the apartments carbon neutral (on a net annual basis) and to minimise carbon emissions from the ground floor spaces.

The solution

Switch2 was contracted to supply and commission secondary metering systems for electricity, heat, domestic hot and cold water and to supply a meter reading system to apportion usage on an equitable basis between the ground floor and individual domestic occupiers on the scheme, by installing an automatic meter reading system (AMR).

This data collection system talks to all the meters at predetermined intervals. Switch2 was also awarded a 5-year contract for system administration and billing of all utilities on the site.

The vision for Mill Energy Services is to be a ground-breaking, small-scale energy service company, demonstrating that a holistic approach to energy demand and supply can lead to the delivery of carbon-neutral energy services to private sector domestic consumers on a commercially viable basis. To achieve this:

• 50kWp Solar PV has been installed on the internal roof slopes on top of the building. The system will produce some 40,000kWh/year of electricity.
• Biomass CHP, a system producing both heat (hot water) and power will be installed. From the feasibility work, the CHP system will have a capacity of around 100kWe (140kWth). It will produce approximately 0.8 GWh of electricity annually.
• Back-up energy supply, gas back up boilers will be installed (600kWh) for use during times of peak heat demand and during down-time of the biomass CHP system.
• The site will be connected to the local electricity from the biomass CHP system and to purchase electricity from an electricity supplier when demand on-site is high

The Outcome

With Mill Energy Services operating successfully, it is estimated that around 400 tonnes of carbon dioxide in the residential accommodation and a possible further 200 tonnes of CO2 in the ground floor spaces will be saved annually.