Vital Community Energi will design, own and operate a single energy centre serving Avant Homes Scotland’s £87m development in Edmonstone Village
Vital Community Energi, the dedicated energy services (ESCo) division of Vital Energi, has signed agreements to develop, own and operate the energy centre at Edmonstone Village, a 709-home residential development in south-east Edinburgh.
The commitment spans approximately 40 years, with 100% of the development’s heat supply delivered from a single, locally-managed plant, with no individual gas boilers in any home on the site.
Because heat is generated at a central energy centre and distributed to homes via insulated district heating pipes, residents pay a tariff that is fixed annually, offering more stability than conventional gas-linked bills. Residents are therefore less exposed to the volatility associated with conventional gas-linked heating. With UK energy bills still closely tied to wholesale gas markets, the scheme offers a structurally different model with local generation plus lower exposure to gas-price swings.
The permanent energy centre, targeted for commissioning by May 2027, is built around two air source heat pump cascade units, each comprising three smaller heat pumps, as its primary heat source, with gas boilers providing an integrated backup. The system is engineered to N+1 standard, meaning redundancy is built in at every level: one cascade can run the entire site, a second can back it up, and gas boilers provide a further layer of contingency.
“Edmonstone Village represents exactly the kind of long-term commitment we are building this part of the business around,” said Kieran Walsh, Regional Manager at Vital Energi. “We are not coming into design and build an energy centre and hand it over. We are investing in this community for the next four decades, owning the asset, operating it, maintaining it, and standing behind the heat supply for every resident who moves in.
“That means residents get a managed, resilient service with pricing that is not at the mercy of global gas markets. It is a fundamentally different proposition from a conventional new-build heating arrangement, and is an exemplary project for future developments across the UK.”
Vital Community Energi will provide the full customer-facing service for residents at Edmonstone, including metering and billing through its proprietary Glass app, a 24/7 operation and maintenance team, and a dedicated customer services function. The scheme operates to Heat Trust standards, the industry framework that serves to protect in lieu of pending Ofgem’s regulation of heat networks in Great Britain, meaning residents benefit from consumer protections comparable to those expected from a regulated energy supplier.
Housebuilder Avant Homes, which has its Scotland regional head office in Edinburgh, is delivering an £87m, 312-home development within Edmonstone Village.
Commenting on the Vital Energi agreement, Avant Homes Scotland’s land and special projects director, Iain Allison, said: “Edmonstone Village is an excellent example of the housebuilding industry’s transition towards greener energy use in line with the environmental ambitions of the Scottish government. Our partnership with Vital Energi ensures our development contributes towards the government’s net zero targets and the ultimate objective of the removal of gas boilers in all new homes.
“Buyers of our homes at Edmonstone Village will benefit from a service that covers the full heat system, offering long-term security of supply and peace of mind for our customers. We wanted a long-term partner, not a short-term solution, and this arrangement delivers exactly that.”
The Edmonstone Village energy centre forms part of Vital Energi’s broader strategic move into energy asset ownership and operation. Alongside the recent minewater heat network at Seaham Garden Village in County Durham, it represents the company’s growing portfolio of projects where it acts as developer, owner and long-term operator of heat infrastructure, rather than as a contractor completing a defined scope of works. The company operates its ESCo activities through Vital Community Energi, which manages heat network customers across a number of schemes in the UK.
