Securing progress in municipal heat planning

07.01.2025

Source: E & M powernews

A BDEW analysis sees municipal heating planning on the right track. According to the study, almost all larger local authorities have at least made a start. What is missing, however, is legislation to implement it.

The so-called Heat Planning Act came into force on January 1, 2025. This law obliges the federal states to prescribe comprehensive heat planning for municipalities where no state law yet exists. An analysis by the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) shows that 98 percent of all larger municipalities (with a population of 45,000 or more) have already started or even completed heat planning.

Municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants must draw up a heating plan by June 30, 2026; all municipalities with fewer inhabitants have until June 30, 2028 to do so. The municipal heating plan is intended to provide municipalities, citizens and energy supply companies with a framework for the infrastructures available in the future for a climate-neutral heating supply. However, central planning alone is not enough, warns the BDEW.

"In order to maintain this momentum, we now need reliable framework conditions and not a zigzag approach to legal regulations," explained BDEW Managing Director Kerstin Andreae. All parties involved need planning and investment security in order to further advance the heating transition. "Existing funding guidelines, laws and regulations must be subjected to a heat transition check and developed accordingly so that the heating plans can also be implemented," Andreae demanded of the legislator.

It makes sense to combine the individual instruments and put together a consistent heating package. This should consist of an increase in the BEW funding volume, a balanced AVB district heating ordinance and a practical design of the heat supply ordinance. The BEW is the "Federal Subsidy for Efficient Heating Networks", the AVB is the "Ordinance on General Terms and Conditions for the Supply of District Heating".

Andreae warned: "Without regulatory adjustments and subsidies, the heating transition will not succeed and will be delayed by years. A complete and consistent heating package is needed now."

Author: Susanne Harmsen