With support from West Midlands Combined Authority, BCIC West Midlands have created the Regional Industrial Energy Demand Mapping Project, an interactive GIS toolkit enabling both  industry and the energy sector to visualise, and therefore plan, the future regional industrial and energy system in a way that supports the economic needs and the economic growth imperative across the wider West Midlands.

Future system modelling and investment planning requires assumptions and simplifications to which most industrial customers cannot relate. This leads to poor quality models, inefficient investments, and ultimately higher-than-necessary electricity bills and connection delays. It is not clear that doubling down on assumptions and modelling will help without much deeper industrial engagement, model validation, and development of processes and on-going dialogues that enable energy network planners to appreciate the realities and constraints of commercial investment planning

The mapping project builds on existing maps and datasets by: 

  1. Encouraging and enabling industrial companies to register and locate potential future demand (or generation) investments. This would help both investors and energy networks validate and improve modelling of potential costs and benefits. 
  1. Supporting conversations and approaches between industrial companies considering sharing local on-site power.
  1. Providing a resource to support locational planning of significant, and potentially shared new clean energy inves tments (for example, hydrogen, small modular nuclear).
  1. Helping to build a community of energy-intense industrial customers who can support regional energy planners by sharing and representing their plans in a trusted and manufacturing-industry-friendly environment. 

Here are some examples of the data the map provides:

The map details the wider West Midlands covering the WMCA region, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire.

More than 5,000 manufacturing supply chain companies are represented in the data. This helps us pinpoint opportunities for collaborative focus between BCIC members & partners, planners, infrastructure engineers, and community stakeholders. Large dots represent major energy users, who account for more than 35% of regional energy use.

Industrial companies in the region (local detail)

NGED Substations

NGED Primary Connected Headroom

NGED Secondary Connected Headroom

Non-Domestic Site EPC Ratings

NGED Infrastructure Investment

Members and partners are able to request new projects through a straightforward process. Once approved, they will get immediate notification and access to begin documenting their project.

If you would like access to the map and are not a BCIC member, why not consider becoming one?