Council to look at plugging community facilities in Ringsend into district heating system early in roll-out

Community facilities in Ringsend and Irishtown could be connected into the Dublin District Heating Project during its first phase of works, council officials have said.

They'll look at it, at least.

The plan for the flagship district heating system, long in the works, is for it to take heat from the Poolbeg rubbish incinerator and use that to heat water, which would be piped into buildings’ radiators around the north and south Docklands.

It's a way of reducing the amount of fossil fuels like gas and oil burned to heat buildings in the city, to help reduce carbon emissions, and help blunt ongoing climate change.

In earlier discussions, officials had said that under phase one of the project, they envisioned heating residential and commercial buildings in the Docklands area, including the Irish Glass Bottle site, the Central Bank’s North Wall Quay campus and the Convention Centre.

Ringsend locals, in October, voiced their dismay that their community — so close to the plant — was being bypassed.

“We get the waste and somebody gets the energy,” said Joe Donnelly, of the Fair Play Café, a community hub that was also serving as the base for the Ringsend Irishtown Sustainability Energy Community.

More recently though, the council's chief executive said that the team behind the project are “very happy” to consider an early pilot connection to existing community facilities around Ringsend and Irishtown, according to a report to the South East Area Committee.

Connecting up large anchor tenants like the big public-sector offices in the Docklands is necessary to ensure that the system is economically viable, said Patrick McKee, a Fianna Fáil local area representative for the south-east inner-city, on Tuesday morning. “But it’s even more for the council to ensure that the local community is not forgotten here.”

Facilities that are used on a daily basis like the Ringsend-Irishtown Community Centre are essential to the project, he said. “While the initial benefits can be seen with large anchor tenants, if we are going to successfully deal with our climate targets, we are going to have to get local communities on board here.”

A feasibility assessment of the possible pilot will be carried out by the council’s project team at the detailed design stage of phase one of the project, the report from the chief executive said.

Chipping along

At the 8 June meeting of the council's South East Area Committee meeting, Karen Kennedy, a council senior engineer and project manager gave local councillors notice of the council’s intention to commence the Part 8 planning process for the first phase of works – meaning the council would apply to itself for permission.

This phase of the project was proposed to be completed in two separate phases, the notice said.

Phase 0 would involve the installation of 8.5km of district heating pipes and the establishment of a heat utility to operate and maintain the network, it said.

Then, Phase 1 would include the construction of an energy centre and thermal storage on a site to the south of the Poolbeg incinerator, Kennedy told the meeting, noting that it would be subject to a separate planning application.

The council’s plan was to commence the Part 8 proceedings in June, she said, with members of the public invited to make observations until August – after which the project team would return to the full council in September with a recommendation.

But, that consultation hasn’t been initiated yet, McKee, the Fianna Fáil local area representative said on Tuesday.

Due to delays in getting the district heating project built, it has missed hooking into a couple of phases of the massive Irish Glass Bottle apartment complex as they've been built. So, instead, those are being warmed with electric heat pumps – at least for now.

At that June area committee meeting though, McKee had inquired about a possible early pilot connection for existing Ringsend and Irishtown facilities to the council’s chief executive via his party colleague Councillor Rory Hogan, Hogan said on Tuesday afternoon.

It would be great if the Ringsend community could be the first to benefit from this scheme, Hogan said. “And what we’re trying to do is co-ordinate with community centres, schools, all sorts of entities to see how they can build connections to it when the district heating network comes near their premises.”

While McKee hasn’t yet engaged with local community groups on linking them into the network, he wants to bring them into the fold ahead of the consultation process, he said.

“And then, subject to the feasibility, hopefully we can get the pilot scheme up and running, which will show some community benefit during the initial phase," he said. "That’s very important.”