Cost Optimal Domestic Electrification (CODE)

The Department is looking to commission a detailed modelling study to help answer the question of what is the cost optimal combination of energy efficiency measures and low carbon electric heating technologies to decarbonise the energy used for heating in homes in England and Wales.

To help answer this question the Department would like to develop a suite of dynamic building models representing the vast majority of different dwelling types in England and Wales. We would expect these models to be able to model complex building physics and in particular, the thermal interaction between the fabric and ventilation of the building and the heating system installed through an annual cycle.

These models would then be used to answer a series of research questions associated with the overarching question of determining the cost optimal combination of measures to decarbonise homes with electric heating technologies. These questions will include understanding the flexibility potential that the building as a system can provide to the electricity network.

The outputs from this analysis will then be simplified and incorporated into more simplified building stock models used by the Department (the National Household Model (NHM)), to scale up the findings from the dynamic models to the entire housing stock.

Outputs from the study will be disseminated to BEIS and other relevant stakeholders and the models developed will be handed over to the BEIS Central Modelling Team. A Call off Contract will then come into effect following the end of the core contract, providing technical modelling support to the Department on an ad hoc basis. For example, this could be technical support to change variables in the models or adding additional technology modules.