Make heat network billing a breeze
Ginger Energy provide a complete outsource billing & customer services solution to building owners and managers which operate a heat network.
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What are heat networks?
Sometimes referred to as communal heating, it is a centralised heat source often located in the plant room of a building delivering heat and hot water and sometimes cooling to its Residents through a series of insulated pipes.
This means the building owner takes on the legal status of Heat Network Operator and becomes responsible for bill production, debt collection, compliance and customer service.
Often the Heat Network Operator or appointed Block Manager outsources the responsibility to a specialist.
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How can Ginger Energy help?
We provide a complete outsource bill production and customer service interface for owners and block managers who operate a heat network.
We work with block owners and property managers who outsource the heat network billing, customer service and debt collection responsibilities, so they can focus their attention on core services, safe in the knowledge that residents are being compliantly invoiced and given the very best in customer service support.
In fact, this service is not just for owners of heat networks, but for any block owners or block managers who’s residents share a communal supply, be that gas, electricity or water.
METERING AND BILLING SERVICES
Our complete outsource billing and customer service interface provides these features and more!
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Meter Data Retrieval
Financial Management
Invoice Production
Main Supply Procurement
Debt Collection
Customer Service
HEAT NETWORK FAQ’s
The key benefits of a heat network are the ability to use thermal storage and local renewable resources at a larger scale, power co-generation potential leading to high efficiency, and heat source flexibility. Although many heat networks are currently supplied by natural gas, they are better equipped than single household boilers to make use of renewable fuels when they become available, and they provide the long term capability of using a national hydrogen or biogas network.
CHP (Combined Heat & Power). These are large scale electricity generators usually running on natural gas, which capture the heat created from the process that would normally go to waste. The heat is then used to produce hot water and, in a heat network, distributed to the local homes or businesses while the electricity goes into the national grid. The generator will usually be paid a fee for generation. This is often called co-generation and is much more efficient than separate electricity and heat generation.
Or
CHP (Communal Heat Plant). These are the plant rooms often buried in the basement of a building which contain the heat generation equipment. The heat generation equipment could be CHP, commercial gas boilers, biomass, or heat pumps.
The building owner or manager becomes the heat network operator and takes on the responsibility of complying with all relevant legislation. The Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations 2014 (Amendment 2020) affect owners and managers of heat networks in the UK. More information can be found here.
The Heat Network's building owner or manager will be responsible for payment of the gas, to the supplier and then can recover the charges from the residents for their share of consumption based on their heat meters recorded usage. This means obtaining readings, calculating consumption and associated transmission costs, producing invoicing, answering billing queries and recovering payments are all necessary when you operate a building with a heat network. This is why many residential block managing agents, choose to outsource these responsibilities to a heat network billing agent.
In November 2020, BEIS released regulations introducing three building classes. These classes allow heat network operators to define if they must install heat meters or heat cost allocators across their buildings.
If your building is exempt, you can continue to invoice on unmetered methods and do not have to install meters or cost allocators.
If heat meter or heat cost allocator installation is required, installation of all required devices must be completed by 1 September 2022 and you are required to produce invoicing in line with The Heat Network (Metering and billing) (Amendment 2020) Regulations.
Ready to start or need to know more?
If you want to know more about how Ginger Energy can help you with Heat Networks, complete the form to request a call back and a knowledgable member of the team will be in touch.
If you have a question, contact us using the details below.
Call us on:
0345 307 3433
Email us on:
info@gingerenergy.co.uk