For the last couple of years, heating bills have been on everyone’s minds. Whether you are concerned about climate change, how supply chains are being affected by a fraught geopolitical landscape, or just managing your household budget, it all comes down to heating. And if heating is the question, Kensa Group considers itself the answer. It is the UK’s leading manufacturer, installer, and funder of networked, ground source heat pumps.
“We were established 24 years ago by two guys making their first heat pump in a shed,” recalls Tamsin Lishman, Kensa Group’s CEO.
The business was born out of two driving forces. The first was the recognition that heat pumps are simply the most efficient form of generating heat for people’s homes. One unit of electricity generated four units of heat, simply by drawing up the heat locked underneath our homes. This was combined with a drive to provide local well-paid manufacturing jobs to the people of Cornwall. But the real breakthrough in the Kensa Group story came when the company realised that to make the most of heat pumps, they had to be installed at scale, on an institutional level, rather than house-by-house. With the foundation of Kensa Contracting, the company pivoted towards social housing, servicing multiple tower blocks at once with networked heat pumps that shared a ground array.
“One borehole can cover three to five properties,” Lishman says. “It allows efficiency and affordability.”
The company has already installed approximately 15,000 heat pumps across the UK, and it plans to keep building on that. Most recently, the company has partnered with renewable energy firm Octopus Energy, securing funding from UK pension funds to put pipes in the ground – a system that parallels the way the UK’s gas grid is funded. It makes heat pumps a viable alternative to gas, while also emphasising consumer choice.
“That means billions of pounds of investor money to deploy into replacing the gas grid,” Lishman points out. “Pipes in the ground, funded by institutional investors. It means that it is the consumers’ choice to connect to that or not and which white box appliance they want to provide heating and hot water in their home – as well as cooling, powered by a choice of electricity suppliers.”
That choice will serve Kensa well, as the company whose vision and business model provide the best choice to consumers, along with the lowest energy bills, and the least need to upgrade existing electricity grids or power generation.
Responding to a Global Crisis
Ground source heat pumps were already an efficient and economical solution to heating homes more sustainably, but the energy crisis of the last couple of years has raised the profile, and the urgency, of this solution.
“I think the energy crisis has accelerated recognition of the need to move to the electrification of heat, using heat pumps,” Lishman says. “Consumer bills are at higher levels than any of us could have imagined. There is consensus around the electrification of heat and momentum outside the UK – Germany is moving away from gas to electrification, and similar things are happening across several different countries. We are at a real tipping point of transition.”
At the same time, Kensa Group is proving itself to be a valuable employer.
“Companies like Kensa play a critical role in the future of the UK with its ability to provide jobs,” Lishman says.
98 pence of every pound spent on a Kensa heat pump gets spent in the UK, providing jobs across a range of existing sectors and easing the passage of the transition.
“Putting the pipes in the street is the same skillset utility companies have used for years, so it provides a transition for workers, as well as heating,” Lishman points out. “Our heat pumps can be installed by any competent plumber. There is no need for retraining. It is an opportunity to continue to deploy the capable workforce of plumbers and engineers around the country, creating new jobs and transitioning workers to the new energy economy.”
The transition has not always been a smooth one, however.
“One of our values is to do the right thing even if it is difficult,” Lishman says. “This is a real purpose-led organisation.”
The purpose-led nature of the organisation has made it an appealing prospect for government funding, but that in turn can leave the company vulnerable to changes in legislation and government priorities.
“When the Renewable Heat Incentive was replaced, we had to put our heads together to understand the new legislation and work with civil servants and ministers to make the best impact possible.”
A Winning Team
The funding is all the more important given that Kensa’s networked heat pump solution requires a large amount of up-front capital to work.
“It has required the amazing teamwork that is really at the heart of the Kensa,” Lishman says.
Lishman is a relatively new addition to that team, which gives her a fresh perspective to appreciate just what makes that team great.
“People ask me why I joined Kensa, and my first answer was about our purpose. I wanted to be a part of a growing company making an impact on decarbonising heat, which is the next critical sector to decarbonise,” Lishman says. “A big percentage of UK emissions come from heating British homes. Our solution lets us address that challenge while taking people out of fuel poverty. It allows us to attract and retain absolutely incredible people.”
Those people share a vision – to decarbonise the UK’s housing and building stock, street by street, area by area, by deploying private investment, laying pipes in the street, and giving people the ability to connect to that with a small white box the size of a microwave.
“What is important to us on that journey is having the best offer for new build housing developers,” says Lishman. “We have the best, most efficient, most consumer-acceptable method for decarbonising heat. It looks and feels just like our experience of gas today. We are looking at social housing and how to get people out of fuel poverty, giving them cheaper bills. That is how we progress through the energy transition and away from imported gas.”
