Due to delays, council’s district heating project wasn’t ready to warm Irish Glass Bottle apartments

Dublin City Council is to begin the planning process this month to build the first phase of its long-promised district heating project, a council official says.

The project is meant to use waste heat from the Poolbeg incinerator to heat water, and then pump that through pipes into buildings’ radiators to heat them.

Fossil fuels, then, would not have to be burned, or additional carbon emitted, to heat the buildings hooked into this network, is the idea.

Early plans, dating back at least to early 2020, included providing district heating to the thousands of new homes planned for the former Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend.  

However, the district heating project has faced delays. In 2022, a council official said there’d be homes linked up to it by 2025, reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent in those areas connected in – but no such thing has happened. 

Meanwhile, construction has gone on at the Irish Glass Bottle site. Towers full of apartments have been built already there, and more are on the way.

At a meeting of the council’s South East Area Committee on Monday, Green Party Councillor Claire Byrne wanted to know how quickly the Glass Bottle apartments could switch over to the district heating system given all of the delays to the project.

The buildings are “district heating enabled”, meaning they could be hooked up to the network, Byrne said.

There had been significant delays to the district heating project, with the primary barrier being funding, said Karen Kennedy, a council senior engineer and project manager, at the meeting. 

This means the district heating project has missed a couple of phases in the Irish Glass Bottle site, she said. “They are utilising heat pumps.”

However, now the district heating project is on track, and really getting started this time, Kennedy said. “We are at a stage at this point where we are confident we can proceed with this initial stage,” she said.

If the district heating system’s offer is attractive enough, there is nothing to stop the Glass Bottle site buildings from connecting to the system later, she said. “That will all have to be negotiated at that point.”

Part 8

Kennedy appeared in the chamber this week to give councillors notice of the council’s intention to start the Part 8 planning process, in which the council will apply to itself for planning permission, she said. 

“Phase zero” of the project will entail the installation of approximately 8.5 kilometres of pipes from the waste-to-energy incinerator through port lands, the Glass Bottle site, Ringsend Park, across the Dodder river and over to the north docklands, she said.

As a part of phase one, the council intends to construct an energy centre and thermal storage on a site to the south of the incinerator, she said. “But that’ll be subject to a separate planning application, which will probably have to go to An Coimisiún Pleanála.”

But first, it is the council’s intention to commence the Part 8 process later this month with the public invited to make their observations until the end of August, she said.

Hopefully then, the project team would come back before the full council’s September meeting with a recommendation, she said.

Flagship project

The purpose of the project is to contribute to Ireland’s climate and energy targets, Kennedy told the committee on Monday. “It’ll have a significant impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the heat sector.”

As a flagship project, it will pave the way for other similar district heating systems in areas like Fingal, South Dublin, Limerick and Cork, she said. “And it will also improve air quality because it will reduce the number of gas boilers in the catchment.”

Although South Dublin County Council has the first phase of its own district heating system, in Tallaght, up and running for a few years now, using waste heat from a data centre there. 

And Fingal County Council has been mulling over a larger, €58 million district heating scheme in Blanchardstown, also using data centre waste heat – and has allocated €1.9 million for the preparation of a detailed design in its capital programme for 2026 to 2028.

For the Dublin District Heating Scheme, in 2022 the council was estimating the cost at €70 million. The Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment has committed to €50 million in funding, Kennedy said Monday. 

“So we have funding in place for the very initial stage to the North Docklands. But future funding will be required and will need to be confirmed,” she said.

Green Party councillor Claire Byrne said she was thrilled to see the project finally progressing, but wanted to know what the district heating team is doing to co-ordinate with agencies like EirGrid and Uisce Éireann, to prevent any hold-ups. “Like, how can we minimise the disruption to the local community?”

The team has had extensive co-ordination with all of the utility companies, including EirGrid Uisce Eireann and the Dublin Port Company, Kennedy said. “And we’ve done our utmost to ensure that there’ll be minimal disruption.”

They will be installing pipes with EirGrid, she said, “possibly on the North Docklands, on the North Quays”, she said.

Byrne then wanted to know how the project was going to proceed in the absence of the Heat (Networks and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024, which will seek to introduce a regulatory system from district heating.

The bill hasn’t been published yet, Kennedy said. “That is a problem.”

Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment Darragh O’Brien said at a Dáil energy policy debate on 26 May that a number of revisions are currently being developed for the original Heads of Bill that were approved by the government in October 2024. “It is intended to seek Government approval for these revisions shortly.”

Kennedy, at the area committee meeting said the team is “happy” and have received legal and planning advice to install the project under the Waste Management Act.

The initial target for the project is going to be high-density, high-rise buildings in the area, Kennedy said. “We want the network and business to be commercially viable as quickly as possible,” she said.

They want to reach a stage where they can connect residential homes, she said. “We will, but that isn’t envisaged in the early stages.”

This decision to initially bypass homes in Ringsend and Irishtown, near the incinerator, to connect to shiny new high-rises, has faced criticism. 

“We get the waste and somebody gets the energy,” said Joe Donnelly, who runs the Fair Play Café, a community hub that also serves as the base for the Ringsend Irishtown Sustainability Energy Community, last October.