Client: London Borough of Islington, 2019-2020

Islington Council asked Inner Circle for help to get its Bunhill 2 Energy Centre – an ambitious scheme that was over budget and missing deadlines – back on track to achieve its goal of using sustainable energy to help local people.

Forward thinking city leaders are constantly searching for sustainable sources of heat and energy that are often all around them. In this case Bunhill’s revolutionary centre – the first of its kind in the world – connected commuters sweltering on the London Underground system with people in the homes above struggling with fuel poverty. It converted excess energy from the London Underground to heat and power local homes and businesses.

We immersed ourselves in every element of the project – technical, commercial and contractual – and produced a report with detailed recommendations within six weeks. The Council accepted all the recommendations and the team were embedded with the Council to ensure the project was completed and operational.

The new energy centre uses state-of-the-art technology on the site of a disused underground station once known as City Road that commuters have not seen for almost 100 years. An underground fan extracts warm air from the Northern Line tunnels to heat water that is then pumped to buildings in the neighbourhood through a new 1.5km network of underground pipes.

This scheme is already reducing resident heating bills and carbon emissions while improving local air quality and making the city more energy self-sufficient. New pipework has added a further 550 homes and a primary school to the network. And the centre’s combined heat and power technology also generates cheaper, greener electricity that is fed back into the London Underground network and an adjacent tower block, powering its communal lighting and lifts.

Our Impact

• We brought the project back on track and delivered ground-breaking ambition – heating homes with sustainable energy via the Northern Line.
• We helped Islington update their existing systems to incorporate new technologies.
• We are using this is example to promote creative heat to energy systems around the country.