Source: Mayor of London
The Mayor of London’s development corporation for Old Oak and Park Royal (OPDC) has today announced that Hemiko has been chosen as the development partner for its innovative new district heat network.
OPDC and Hemiko will work together in partnership to design, deliver, fund and operate the new low carbon heat network, which will draw waste heat from local data centres, providing low-cost, low carbon energy to over 9,000 new homes and businesses in the Old Oak and Park Royal area, as well as existing buildings including Central Middlesex Hospital. Using waste heat from data centre cooling systems in this way is a UK first that positions London at the forefront of the UK’s transition to a low carbon, circular economy, whilst driving the growth of the UK tech sector.
Hemiko is a leading heat network utility provider that develops, builds, funds and operates urban heat networks for commercial, residential and mixed-use developments across the UK, including the Greenwich Peninsula regeneration project in London and they are currently building a new network in Worthing.
The first phase of OPDC’s heat network is expected to deliver up to 95GWh of heat a year, the equivalent of boiling around 1 billion kettles. The network will expand over five phases between 2028 and 2040, serving the wider Old Oak and Park Royal regeneration area, London’s largest new development project, with plans to build up to 25,000 homes over the next two decades.
In November 2023, OPDC was awarded £36m from the Government’s Green Heat Network Fund and in October 2024, Old Oak and Park Royal was announced as one the UK’s first heat network zones – areas designated by the Government where heat networks will provide the lowest cost, low carbon heating option.
The Mayor of London’s Local Energy Accelerator (LEA) programme, which was co-funded by the Mayor and the European Regional Development Fund, and the Mayor’s Green Finance programme, have provided an additional £1.7m to fund the technical and commercialisation work to develop the commercial case for the network.
This will now be bolstered by Hemiko who will invest £63m in the first phases, growing to around £600m by 2040, boosting economic growth and creating local jobs in West London.
OPDC’s heat network will eventually serve London’s largest Opportunity Area, benefitting new and existing communities living and working in the new urban district being created at Old Oak and Park Royal. As well as many thousands of new and affordable homes, plans include around 3 million sq ft of new commercial, retail and leisure development, high-quality parks and green space, and community services and facilities, all within walking distance of the new HS2 station at Old Oak Common, where HS2, Elizabeth line and Great Western Main Line services will operate.