Back in 2016, North Glasgow Homes began looking at how it could eradicate fuel poverty amongst its tenants and reduce the carbon emissions of its homes. With the help of stock condition surveys and energy performance assessments, two initial sites were identified as significantly energy inefficient but also high on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation. In one of the sites, 80% of tenants were classified as being in fuel poverty.
Feasibility studies were conducted to pinpoint the best way to improve the thermal efficiency and carbon footprint of six 25-storey tower blocks in this Springburn area of Glasgow. It was agreed that the existing storage heating systems, now nearly 20 years old, should be replaced with artificial intelligence (AI) controlled district heating systems. Air source heat pumps would be installed to heat the 592 flats and the fire safety of the buildings would also be fully upgraded.
The challenge: Tackling fuel poverty and carbon emissions under tight deadlines
Funding for this large-scale work came from two main sources, the Scottish Government Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP), and an unsecured loan facility from the Energy Savings Trust.
To be eligible for Government funding, North Glasgow Homes had to move fast.
“The Scottish Government set tough deadlines,” explains Graham McDowall, Delivery Project Manager at North Glasgow Homes. “But it wasn’t only their application lead times. We had to deliver the project by a certain date to qualify for funding and Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Income.”
North Glasgow Homes had to procure the design of the heating systems, along with all equipment and materials. But it wasn’t just heating. The housing association wanted to install fire rated doors, interlinked smoke and heat detectors, smoke actuators, upgraded fire compartmentation, sprinkler ready pipework, remove asbestos and tackle a problem around people taking flammable gas cannisters into their flats. On top of this, new soil vent waste pipes had to be fitted.
The solution: Fast, flexible procurement through PfH Scotland
The housing association asked PfH Scotland to help them procure this £34 million programme quickly and compliantly so they could hit their funding deadlines and retrofit the tower blocks to a high quality.
“If you do a traditional tender then you’ve already lost six months,” says Graham McDowall. “The beauty of PfH Scotland’s Decarbonisation & Retrofit framework is the speed. I spoke to the team, looked at the contractors available, found and appointed the number one on the framework lot and we hit the ground running.”
After tender negotiations, North Glasgow Homes directly awarded the bulk of the work to Easy Heat Systems.
“We’ve been very lucky,” Graham comments. “PfH Scotland did all the hard work vetting contractors, and we were delighted with the main contractor. No one could have delivered a better job than them.”
Iain Muir, Commercial Director at Easy Heat Systems, agrees about the benefits of speeding up the process.
“There were so many arms to this project and the clock was ticking. PfH Scotland helped to streamline the procurement. They made sure we were able to fit everything into the very tight timeline.”
Iain also believes that flexibility around contracts made things easier. “Some procurement providers insist that you use the framework contract, but PfH Scotland allowed us to use a bespoke contract – the SBCC Design and Build 2016 – which was much better suited for this project.”
In total, the procurement process took just over one month and work on the air source heat pump heating system was completed in two years.
What we learned: 55 Lessons from COP26
Coach loads of delegates visited the tower blocks over the 11 days of COP26. First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon and Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights, Patrick Harvie also toured the site. North Glasgow Homes was asked by the Scottish Government to record their lessons learnt to share with other local authorities and housing associations.
Graham McDowall chuckles. “We learnt a lot of lessons – 55 in total! And one of the big ones was procurement. Going down a traditional route can sometimes be too slow and clunky for a project like this. You need to move fast with energy efficiency; that’s exactly what we did here and we’re very proud of the results.”
“If you do a traditional tender then you’ve already lost six months. The beauty of PfH Scotland’s Decarbonisation & Retrofit framework is the speed.”
Graham McDowall, Delivery Project Manager, North Glasgow Homes
The results: Warmer homes, lower emissions, and national recognition
Another IoT system uses remote AI and thermal imaging to identify gas and oxygen canisters. This also has the capability to detect e-scooters and e-bikes taken into tower blocks, alerting property managers. These high-risk items present a real danger to tenants, and any resulting fire or explosion would be complex, challenging, and expensive for the housing association. Remote AI monitoring is a safer alternative to providing a 24/7 on-site waking watch service, for a fraction of the cost
The homes of over 592 families are now amongst the most energy efficient in the UK
Balgrayhill Tower Blocks: 35% fall in carbon emissions and 74% fall in energy consumption
Carron Estate Tower Blocks: 71% fall carbon emissions and 66% fall in energy consumption
A measurement and verification process is underway to track an associated reduction in fuel poverty levels; at this stage it’s too early to report on the outcomes of the project; however, early analysis of the data looks promising
In the near future, tenants will be involved in procurement – from the tender process, right through to choosing energy suppliers. This will be done with a special tenant committee group (constitution yet to be formalised)
Each flat has a heating control system with data on usage and bills. This empowers tenants in managing their household finances and enables North Glasgow Homes to support people at risk of fuel poverty
IoT devices in each flat allow the housing association to track temperature, humidity levels and measure the impact that recent improvements have on health and wellbeing