With the festive season now well upon us and the year drawing to a close, our thoughts turn to reviewing 2022 and what it has meant for all things heat networks.

We began our year with a team development day for all the team to come together from across the country. We set up Chirpy Heat in 2019 with the simple desire to make heat networks better. It was a shared belief between the three co-founders and for the first year, we were the team. Today we are now up to a total team of nine aided by some really brilliant sector-leading associates who will always form part of what we do.

And as the boat got bigger we sailed on bigger seas. We did more work with our existing clients and gained new many new clients too: we have now worked with over 50 housing providers on hundreds of schemes across the UK and well over 20% of heat network schemes in the sector. Much of this has been driven by clients’ growing awareness of heat networks and the new regulations coming through. Notable additions included our first client in Scotland and more clients in the private sector.

The beginning of the year also saw lots of work focusing heat network efficiency and securing significant levels of funding for clients through the Heat Network Efficiency Scheme. The next round of has just been announced by BEIS and we will be helping even more clients secure funding.

As always client have been tackling multiple heat network issues on multiple fronts which has kept the work we do varied for sure. Some of the standout issues for the sector have been sorting out their metering and billing services, ensuring they stay on the right side of compliance, reviewing tariffs and creating that overarching strategic approach to get heat networks to deliver on their promise of low cost, low carbon and reliable heating and hot water.

After the summer we secured an Innovate UK grant to develop an exciting new service for the sector which we are now working on with 10 housing clients. This will be launched in 2023 and is set to transform the way that the sector assesses and manages heat networks in the future – watch this space!

As the year has come to an end, we saw the Government’s response to the energy crisis, with big implications for heat networks operators. One of our co-founders, Rachael Mills, grasped the nettle and has provided the invaluable advice needed for housing providers and sector bodies to help them take action. More of this to follow.

So overall lots of progress on many fronts – but much more to be done!