CON_7063 National Zoning Model - Primary Model Development

1.1. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) is using Lot 3.1 from its Heat Network Zoning Framework to commission a primary National Zoning Model (NZM) developer from December 2024 until March 2026.

1.2. Model developers are required to further develop the NZM which has been built in collaboration with a range of organisations over the last 2-3 years. The model supports the identification of heat network zones (HNZs) in a standardised, consistent, efficient, and cost-effective manner. It produces maps and datasets describing the location and scale of indicative heat network zones. The indicative zones produced will be geographical areas where heat networks are expected to be the lowest cost technology to decarbonise heat used in buildings.

1.3. The model uses multiple national and local data sets to build up a granular building-by-building understanding of the likely heating demand, heat supply opportunities and routing constraints within each area. It then applies a range of national and local assumptions used widely across the industry to understand where heat networks are likely to meet the lowest cost, low carbon test outlined above. It uses a set of algorithms to perform calculations and optimise solutions at scale which would otherwise take months to generate manually.

1.4. The model is developed primarily in Clojure, at present DESNZ anticipate this shall remain the case for the duration of the contract. The codebase will be shared with all suppliers on Lot 3.1 from its Heat Network Zoning Framework under existing confidentiality clauses.