GTC November 2023 News Round-Up

It has been a whole month since we launched our regular online news article, where we look back at what the GTC teams have been up to.  Join us once again to celebrate achievements, project news, industry insights, and more.

The month of November saw the arrival of Storm Ciaran, one of our favourite industry award ceremonies, funding news, customer celebrations and much more!

Kicking the month off was Storm Ciaran, with the @MET office issuing an amber weather warning for ‘very strong and damaging winds’.

At GTC we work hard to provide reliable utilities to our customers all year round, however, when storms hit, we cannot guarantee an uninterrupted supply 100% of the time.

Here we share hints, tips and advice on what to do if customers experience a supply outage.  Find out more here: Power Outages – Help and Advice.

We also encourage customers who have children under the age of five, are medically dependent, have mental health issues, poor mobility, a sensory impairment, or are of pensionable age, to sign up for our Priority Services Register here.

Housebuilder Awards event

Members of the team donned their glad rags and attended the annual Housebuilder awards this month.

Our Community Heat Hub was shortlisted in the Best Sustainability Initiative category, sadly we were pipped to the post by the Barratt Developments and Bellway Homes on the night, who jointly won the award.

Triple Point Heat Networks Investment Management

We are excited to share that our networked heat pump solution received considerable financial support from the Green Heat Network Fund this month.

Nearly £65 million was awarded to five projects and our Community Heat Hub, which is currently being constructed and installed at Taylor Wimpey’s Chilton Woods development in Sudbury, Suffolk, was one of the recipients.

The Community Heat Hub which has been developed with our sister company, Metropolitan, can provide low-carbon heat to residential developments and is expected to set the standard across the housebuilding industry for high-quality, fossil-free heating.

BUUK website launch

Our parent company, BUUK, launched a brand-new website! www.bu-uk.co.uk

BUUK is the UK’s leading independent provider of last-mile networks, currently boasting over 30,000 and serving more than one million homes.

NUAR post

GTC officially joined the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR).

The NUAR is a new digital map of underground pipes and cables made by Geospatial Commission, designed to revolutionise the way we install, maintain, operate, and repair our buried infrastructure.

The emerging service improves the efficiency and safety of underground works by providing secure access to privately and publicly owned location data about the pipes and cables beneath our feet.

NUAR will help us to:

• Reduce disruption to communities
• Rapidly access data for emergency work
• Improve safety for our field workers
• Streamline our data-sharing

Tom Duncan, Head of Design and Records at GTC said: “This is a project that we have been working on for many years so to see it come to fruition is a real achievement for all involved. As a business, we are committed to collaborative data-sharing and safety improvements which ultimately improve service delivery and optimisation for all parties in our operation chain.”

Water Front Plaza, Edinburgh case study

Waterfront Plaza in Edinburgh is an atmospheric urban regeneration project down on the waterfront and is home to the Royal Yacht Britannia.

Waterfront Plaza consists of 391 homes in a range of configurations from one-bedroom apartments to duplexes and townhouses, as well as surrounding bars, restaurants, and a shopping centre, all set near, or overlooking, the water.

GTC Scotland was appointed by CALA Homes (East) Scotland to design, construct, and install the water, gas, and electricity infrastructure.

GTC undertook all the trenching for water, gas and electricity at one time with the installation work carried out by its own in-house teams of engineers.

Furthermore, the experienced and highly knowledgeable teams were able to undertake all the utility connections to new homes in just one visit resulting in faster and more efficient electricity, gas, and water connections.

GTC’s multi-utility approach meant that the developer only needed to deal with one project manager, who coordinated and scheduled everything with outstanding efficiency.

Ian Spiers, Engineering Manager, Cala Homes (East) Scotland, said: “When procuring prospective MU providers, it was evident GTC was looking to work in partnership with CALA Homes (East). GTC was eager to ensure that the site infrastructure was delivered in line with our build strategy and demanding construction programme, with appropriate resources guaranteed to ensure all these key factors were delivered.”

Read more about this project here: Waterfront Plaza

GTC Scotland Customer Forum 2023

Purpose-driven communications are a core focus of our business operation, and we strive to engage with our customers to ensure we understand the challenges that they are facing, especially when the industry is going through significant changes.

In November, GTC Scotland hosted its end-of-year customer forum at the Corinthian in Glasgow, welcoming representation from Taylor Wimpey, Barrat, Persimmon, Bellway, Roberston Homes, Lovell, Cruden, Stewart Milne, Places for People, Miller, Keepmoat and Cruden Homes.

The forum was centred on a number of hot topics, including The Future of MU, GTC Scotland’s Customer Journey, Energy Transformation and Innovations.

As the leading utility partner in the UK, it is incumbent on GTC to deliver seamless MU infrastructure with first-class customer service, while embracing the complexity and creating innovative solutions that positively impact our customers.

Chilton Woods large plant delivery

November marked another important milestone for our Networked Heat Pump Solution as we delivered the heat pumps, thermal stores and plant room for our first Heat Hub at Chilton Woods, Sudbury. Once fully constructed and operational from early 2024, the Community Heat Hub has been designed to deliver zero carbon heating and hot water to over 950 new homes and a primary school on the development. A brilliant team effort from Metropolitan, GTC and Taylor Wimpey!

The 80,000 litres of thermal storage which has been installed, allows the Heat Hub to generate and store energy as heat when electricity prices are low. This allows the Hub to provide heat during peak times in the morning for up to two hours without running any of the heat pumps or electric boilers. This flexible operation reduces the cost of generating heat which keeps heat bills low for homeowners. The Community Heat Hub will reduce carbon emissions by 75-80% and replace the use of gas for new homes, comfortably meeting the requirements of the 2025 Future Homes Standard whilst delivering reliable, great value heating and hot water to homes across the development.