Client John Thompson & Sons Ltd
Location Belfast, Northern Ireland
Value £5 million
Transforming Belfast's northern quarter with NI's very first district heating strategy
About the project
Marking a major first for NI, the North City District Heating (NCDH) project is a major low-carbon energy initiative designed to transform how heat and power are generated and distributed in Belfast’s northern quarter. The project will harness waste heat from the company’s CHP plant at Thompsons Mill, redistributing it to neighbouring high-demand energy users including the Mater Hospital and Ulster University Belfast Campus (UUBC).
The development represents one of Belfast’s most forward-thinking energy infrastructure projects, supporting the city’s wider Climate Action Plan and transition toward carbon neutrality. It combines local energy generation, waste heat recovery, and advanced digital monitoring to provide a scalable model for future district heating schemes across Northern Ireland. By reusing industrial by-product heat, the scheme offers a sustainable, circular solution that reduces emissions while improving energy resilience across the urban network.
IN2 was appointed to conduct a full feasibility study and Mechanical, Electrical and Environmental consultancy. After detailed analysis, IN2 proposed the technical design and integration of the district energy network, providing reviews of the existing CHP and boiler plant at Thompsons Mill, performing visual surveys, metering analysis, and load studies to evaluate system capacity and operational efficiency. This work underpins the design of a new district heating and private-wire electricity network, allowing localised energy generation and distribution directly to external users.
IN2 also supported regulatory coordination, including planning, utility consents, and Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) frameworks to facilitate long-term private energy exchange between producers and consumers. By combining advanced energy engineering with policy alignment, IN2 has helped define a project that not only delivers measurable carbon savings but also acts as a replicable model for industrial decarbonisation in urban environments.
