Heat networks - thermal energy target 2035: consultation

Annex B – Glossary of Terms and Acronyms

Anchor load – Buildings with a large, reliable and long-term demand for heat, often with a stable and constant use profile, can act as anchors for a developing district heating networks. These anchor loads allow district heat networks to operate efficiently and provide the potential to extend the network to smaller existing heat users in the area.

CCC – Climate Change Committee - independent, statutory body with the purpose of advising the UK and devolved governments on emissions targets and to report on progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for and adapting to the impacts of climate change.

FNA - First National Assessment of Potential Heat Network Zones. The FNA, published on the gov.scot website in April 2022, was prepared by Buro Happold on behalf of Zero Waste Scotland for the Scottish Government. The data has been used to produce evidence-based potential targets for heat output from heat networks in Scotland.

Heat network - Heat networks, as defined under the 2021 Act, include both district and communal heating:

• a district heat network is defined as a network by which thermal energy is distributed from one or more sources of production to more than one building
• a communal heating system is a system by which thermal energy is distributed from one or more sources of production to one building comprising more than one building unit

Heat networks can provide heating, cooling, or steam for industrial processes.

HNMBR - Heat Networks Metering and Billing Regulations 2014

LHEES - Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies – strategies which aim to establish area-based plans and priorities for systematically improving the energy efficiency of buildings, and decarbonising heat.

Ofgem - The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets – a non-ministerial department of the UK Government, which acts as the independent regulator of the UK energy market.

NDA - Non-domestic analytics - a dataset developed by the Energy Saving Trust on behalf of the Scottish Government to provide more detailed address-level information about the non-domestic building stock in Scotland. Like Home Analytics, which brings together various sources of data on domestic buildings, NDA integrates several non-domestic datasets such as Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and Scottish Assessors records. NDA uses statistical models to help fill data gaps in the underlying data sources

TDCV - typical domestic consumption values

Terawatt hour (TWh) - A unit of energy equal to 1,000,000,000,000 watt hours

TWh/annum – Terawatt hours per year

Thermal Energy – This term is used loosely in various contexts in physics and engineering. It can refer to several different well-defined physical concepts. The 2021 Act sets out that thermal energy" means heating, cooling or hot water.

UK - The United Kingdom

Watt hour (Wh) - A unit of energy (or work) equal to the energy of one watt operating for one hour, equivalent to 3600 joules

Watt (W) - An international standard unit of power, defined as one joule per second. Being a small unit, it is usually used as a multiple such as kilowatts, megawatts, gigawatts or terawatts