The Fair Work, Economic Growth and Infrastructure Committee will consider a sourcing strategy to start the process of looking into options for the city.

The Dundee Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy (LHEES) has identified the scale of the opportunity for heat networks to decarbonise heat and improve energy efficiency in the city’s buildings, with five prioritised heat network zones identified.

These are City Centre, Baldovie, Caird Park, Ninewells Hospital and Lochee.

The contract recommended for approval by councillors involves securing specialist legal advice to appraise options for the city. Recommendations would also be made about the most appropriate model which should be adopted to unlock heat network deployment.

A comprehensive assessment of the risks and challenges would also be carried out with the City Centre Heat Network zone as the initial project.

Local authorities across Scotland are obliged to produce an LHEES following the introduction of the Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (Scotland) Order 2022.

Committee convener Councillor Steven Rome said: “Approval of this strategy would allow us to appraise options to take forward the concept of heat networks in Dundee.

“This is vital for the future of our city and will represent an important way of meeting our climate and net zero commitments.”

Climate, Environment and Biodiversity convener Cllr Heather Anderson said: “This is a massive task, but making homes more energy efficient both reduces heating costs and improves the health and wellbeing of our residents, as well as creating jobs in the city.”

“As well as our properties, the council has the lead responsibility for thinking strategically about how the whole of the city’s energy demands are managed and met going forward. This LHEES helps to clarify the scale of the task ahead and identify ways of meeting ambitious targets.”

The total cost of the contract is anticipated to be in the range of £55,000-£65,000, which will be funded through a grant from Scotland’s Heat Network Support Unit, with a 10% contribution from the Sustainability and Climate Change revenue budget.