Case Study: The Scottish Government maps heat hotspots to boost energy efficiency with Ordnance Survey

The Scottish Government - Customer Case Study

The Scottish Government faced a national planning challenge: heating and cooling account for over 50% of Scotland’s energy use, yet there was no consistent, nation‑wide dataset to show where heat demand and generation opportunities sit. Working with OS under the One Scotland Mapping Agreement, the Scottish Government used OS products — including OS MasterMap Topography Layer and OS AddressBase — to build the Scotland Heat Map, an interactive web tool that brings spatial heat data down to individual buildings and supports public and local‑authority awareness.

OS delivered the mapping data and licensing framework that made a user‑friendly public map and detailed local views possible, and enabled sharing across more than 100 public sector organisations. The Scotland Heat Map gives all 32 local authorities a local copy for planning and reporting, speeds up analysis and reduces data collection, highlights opportunities for district heating and micro‑CHP, and saved the City of Edinburgh Council six weeks’ work on its Energy Master Plan — demonstrating clear, measurable impact from OS’s solution.

The Scottish Government

Andrew Seaton

Heat Data Analyst