SDEN Increasingly Unlikely to Heat New Mill Quarter
Revelations in recent Freedom of Information Act Requests (FOI’s) and speeches by Liberal Democrat Councillors at Council meetings have highlighted significant flaws in the SDEN business model. New data has resulted in concern over whether SDEN will even be able to heat the New Mill Quarter estate in Hackbridge following the 19 site-wide outages* and pricing far over the market rate. FOI data shows that consumption is double what is expected and heat supply is far beneath requirements whilst also failing to provide “green energy” as advertised.
FOI info
In response to an FOI, the Liberal Democrat controlled Sutton Council which wholly owns SDEN has revealed that the onsite boilers have a capacity of 6,000kW.
The landfill gas engine which was long touted as the solution to intermittent heating and the falsehoods in the Liberal Democrats “green energy” claims was stated to have 1,200kW of heat output.
Together, these two heat sources provide 7,200kW of heat for 805 properties, a best-case scenario of 8.9kW per property.
In the same FOI, Sutton Council states that the current demand for the site, which is under 50% completion is the same as that predicted at full build-out meaning that consumption is twice what they allowed for.
A standard flat is expected to require a boiler outputting 12-24kW of heat with a 3 to 4 bed house requiring 24-36kW. A great deal over the 8.9kW on offer by SDEN, even before the heat requirements doubled from their expectation.
Crumbling Finances
Three years into the 25-year contract and SDEN has now lost half of its cumulative cash, meaning that any profit in the business is now down to under £30,000 per year.
With the heat network unable to respond to the number of complaints, a new £80,000 + a year job to manage the equivalent of 2.6 full-time members of staff has been advertised. This post will now have to be funded by the taxpayer due to the precarious financial situation of the Liberal Democrat business.
The Managing Director, Amanda Cherrington, has indicated her interest in re-structuring millions of pounds of loans to the business from the Council which are ultimately derived from the taxpayer. If the business defaults, not only will the residents of New Mill Quarter feel the pinch, but also the wider population of Sutton, as millions of pounds will need to be recouped through more Council tax rises.
When pressed on this by a member of the public at a recent Council meeting, Liberal Democrat Councillor Sunita Gordon, Lead Member of Resources, stated that the information was “commercially sensitive” and declined to comment on what steps the Council could undertake to be more transparent and highlight lost taxpayers money.
Caption: London Fire Brigade attends LibDem Heat Network faulty plant room after calls from the public as heating fails for 19th time in one year.
SDEN sister site debacle
The “expert” Consultant hired by Sutton Liberal Democrats to orchestrate the build-out of SDEN and the pricing system, Simon Woodward, has constructed similar sites around the country, resulting in sister sites to the New Mill Quarter.
At one of these sites, mirroring the experiences of the Sutton residents, outages have become commonplace, so much so that the entire estate will now have its heating, hot water, electricity and water shut off over a two-day period to investigate the rampant faults.
This comes at a time when residents remain under lockdown and are tied into these contracts with nowhere to go.
Just as at other sites, Woodward was unable to find an electrical fault at New Mill Quarter, which would account for the numerous outages, even though there have been multiple investigations and fire brigade attendances. This raises questions about not only the safety of the systems but also the Liberal Democrats checks into competencies and the tendering process.
Councillors under review
Senior Liberal Democrat Councillor Jayne McCoy, Chair of the Housing, Environment and Business Committee who was responsible for SDEN is now under review following a formal complaint.
Cllr McCoy had repeatedly stated that the SDEN pricing system was above board and permitted use from a third-party company she referred to as a government body.
However, the Heat Trust has now formally stated that they are aware of not only misuse of their logos, which they referred to as potentially misleading, but also the misuse of their online calculator which they categorically state is not meant to be used for commercial decisions as per Cllr McCoy’s assertions. The Heat Trust confirmed that SDEN was not a registered member and that they had contacted SDEN to make this view known.
As a result, Trading Standards is now understood to be reviewing Cllr McCoy and SDEN.
Not so Green Energy
On marketing material and pre-sales advice from SDEN, the district heating scheme was sold as “green energy” to residents. The newly released information shows however that in the best-case scenario, less than 20% of heat could be considered “green” some 4 years into the scheme, with the remaining energy coming from onsite boilers.
Future connections to the incinerator, if they occur, are still believed to be up to another 5 years away and require up to half a kilometre of pipework, something that currently SDEN does not have the money to finance.
With events unfolding poorly, Viridor may also be less than keen to partner up with the troubled heat network and inexperienced staff. Expectations are that like in other deals, councillors and SDEN management will have contracts in place that don’t benefit residents but protect Viridor and their offshore investors. This is likely to cause further issues for the Liberal Democrats. who are currently locked into a similar situation with the housebuilder Barratt, casting doubt as to whether the Liberal Democrat group is competent to run these big-budget projects.
*Since this article was published we are told New Mill Quarter has suffered a further outage despite assurances this would no longer occur taking the most up to date tally to 20 outages
Caption: Satircal artwork by @wandelvalet