A London housing estate, two data centres, and a Tube ventilation shaft will be linked into a single smart energy grid that shares heat, power, and electric-vehicle charging across the neighbourhood. The project tackles a core barrier to decarbonising cities: most low-carbon energy technologies—heat pumps, solar panels, battery storage—are installed building by building, missing the efficiency gains possible when whole neighbourhoods trade energy between each other. GreenSCIES2 will produce a detailed, shovel-ready design for a "5th generation" heat network that uses an ambient-temperature water loop to move waste heat from data centres and the London Underground into homes, while distributed heat pumps provide heating or cooling as needed. An AI-based control system will flex the grid’s demand in response to electricity tariffs. If successful, the design will be replicable across UK cities, cutting whole-system energy costs, carbon emissions, and household bills. The consortium is already proving the model in the West Midlands and Sheffield. The project also develops "energy as a service" business models to shift consumer behaviour, and will establish a Centre of Excellence for heat networks and smart grids. This is applied engineering with a clear path to implementation.
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GreenSCIES2 will produce a detailed design for a smart energy system to integrate new low carbon energy technologies across heat, power and transport that can be replicated across the UK. Building on learnings from the GreenSCIES1 feasibility study, the expanded consortium will develop innovative technical/business models for the provision of smart energy systems that significantly reduce whole system costs of energy, carbon emissions and result in significantly smaller bills for the end consumer. The smart energy grid will also help provide affordable warmth and reduce local pollution, with a clear path for replication elsewhere in the UK. The scheme concept is already seen as one of THE key future energy solutions for low carbon cities. The detailed design will provide an ultra-low 5th generation heat network with distributed low carbon heat pumps to supply heating/cooling using an ambient loop to exchange energy between buildings, enabling recovery of low-grade waste heat from data centres and the tube. Each of the decentralised energy centres will provide hubs for PV electricity supply, EV V2G charging/storage alongside large scale batteries. The hubs can then be used for Demand Side Response to flex with the electricity grid requirements/tariffs using a sophisticated AI based control system. This will be the first large smart energy system in the UK that integrates energy technologies across heat, power and transport, allowing wide-scale replication. This project is focussed in the London Borough of Islington but involves proving replication in the West Midlands and Sheffield. The project involves a large number of LBI residential blocks but also includes two data centres, a TFL ventilation shaft and a range of public/commercial buildings. GreenSCIES2 will also develop innovative business models for the provision of 'energy as a service' that help change consumer behaviour to reduce carbon emissions. This will be a community-based project with wide stakeholder engagement including local residents and businesses but also with policy makers and replicators. Research objectives include establishing a new replicable design methodology to reach smart energy systems. Also delivering legacy though a new academic 'Centre of Excellence' around heat networks and smart grids with extensive knowledge transfer through conferences, papers, and International engagement. GreenSCIES2 will deliver a detailed design which minimises technical/commercial risk/uncertainty, with commercial agreements in place and is 'shovel-ready' for implementation. This is an entirely innovative ground breaking project that will provide an investable low carbon scheme unique to the UK.
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