Energy centres, networks, substations
Commissioning software for district energy where the network and the energy centre are proven together.
A district heating or cooling scheme is an energy centre feeding a buried network of pipework and heat interface units, built out in phases while customers are already connecting. Deskely tracks plant, network sections and connection points as one register, so pressure testing and commissioning evidence exist for every metre before it is buried and forgotten.
- Assets
- Energy centre, network, HIUs
- Tests
- Pressure, flushing, insulation
- Phasing
- Live network, ongoing connections
- Gate
- Section handover and heat-on
Choose your project type
The problem
The network gets buried before anyone agrees it was tested properly.
District energy schemes build out in phases: an energy centre commissions once, but the network extends over years as new buildings connect, each with its own pressure test, flushing record and heat interface unit.
Once a trench is backfilled, a missing or ambiguous pressure test record becomes very expensive to resolve, and by then the contractor who ran it may have moved on.
Deskely records pressure testing, flushing and insulation checks against the specific pipe section before it is closed up, so evidence exists at the point it can still be acted on.
Setting up the register
Energy centre plant and network sections sit in one register with connection points beneath them.
The energy centre — boilers, CHP, heat pumps, thermal stores, pumps and controls — is modelled as plant subsystems, each with its own commissioning record set.
Network sections are tagged by chainage or route, each carrying pressure test, flushing, insulation and jointing records, with heat interface units tagged individually at the connection point.
Network drawings and connection schedules are parsed into that structure, so a new phase extends the register rather than starting a parallel one.
Execution
Pressure testing and plant commissioning run on separate tracks that meet at heat-on.
Pipework crews record hydrostatic pressure tests, flushing results and joint insulation checks per section on tablets before backfill, with photos of the open trench where the record calls for them.
Energy centre commissioning follows a conventional mechanical and electrical path — plant functional testing, control loop tuning and interlock verification — captured against each piece of plant.
Heat interface unit connections are recorded per building, including flow and return temperatures and metering verification, so each customer connection has its own signed record.
Section handover and heat-on
Heat is turned on to a section once its pipework and its plant are both proven.
Section handover is issued once pressure testing, flushing and insulation records for that stretch of network are complete, independent of the energy centre's own commissioning progress.
Heat-on to a building depends on both the network section and its heat interface unit connection record being signed, with punch categorised by whether it blocks that connection.
The as-built dossier — pressure test certificates, network drawings and plant settings — is exported per phase, which is what the network operator needs as the scheme keeps growing.
Thermal metering and billing accuracy
Every customer connection is a billing relationship, so the heat meter's calibration and MID compliance record has to be as solid as the pipe pressure test.
A district energy customer is billed on the reading from a single heat meter at their heat interface unit, calculated from flow and the temperature differential between supply and return, and any dispute over a bill starts with a question about that meter's calibration certificate and MID or equivalent legal-metrology compliance.
Because connections happen in a rolling programme over years, the meter fitted to building forty may be a different batch or even a different manufacturer to the one fitted to building four, and keeping each meter's calibration certificate, serial number and verification date attached to its specific connection is what makes a billing dispute resolvable rather than a network-wide audit.
Deskely holds the heat meter's serial number, calibration certificate and legal metrology verification against its specific HIU connection record, so a billing query on any building can be answered from that connection's own evidence rather than a spreadsheet of meters kept apart from the commissioning record.
How it runs
From an empty trench to heat delivered.
District energy schemes are built in phases over years, so the register has to grow cleanly rather than being rebuilt each time.
- 01
Model plant and network
Energy centre subsystems and network sections tagged separately, with heat interface units beneath each connection.
- 02
Parse drawings and schedules
Network route drawings and connection schedules drafted into a reviewable register per phase.
- 03
Test before backfill
Pressure, flushing and insulation records captured per section on tablet before the trench is closed.
- 04
Commission the energy centre
Plant functional testing, control tuning and interlock verification recorded per item of plant.
- 05
Connect and record each HIU
Heat interface unit connection, flow and return readings and metering verification signed per building.
- 06
Hand over by section
Section and connection certificates issued from signed records as each phase completes.
FAQ
Questions about District energy scopes.
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