13 .06.2023
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
A district heating summit was held in Berlin at the invitation of the Federal Minister of Economics and the Federal Minister of Construction. At the meeting, nearly 30 associations of affected sectors were represented.
The conversion of the heat supply is an important part of the energy transition, because more than half of the total energy consumption in Germany is for heating and hot water. Therefore, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) and Federal Minister of Construction Klara Geywitz (SPD) invited on June 12 to a district heating summit. Representatives of the heating industry, the housing and construction sectors, industry, environmental and consumer protection, and trade unions took part.
All participants agreed that conversion and expansion of heating networks are of outstanding importance for the success of the heating turnaround. Only in this way could the climate protection goals be achieved. According to a joint declaration, the focus is on converting the grid-based heat supply to renewable energies and unavoidable waste heat. The Federal Minister of Economics praised the joint determination of the participants to generate a total of half of the heat in the grids in a climate-neutral manner by 2030. So far, he said, the figure is only about 20 percent.
"Heat grids in particular can be a particularly cost-effective climate-neutral solution for supplying heat to buildings, neighborhoods and entire communities," Habeck said. Therefore, he said, the federal government must remove barriers. "It is important to strengthen price transparency and thus consumer protection, making local and district heating more attractive," he said. The federal construction minister underscored the goal of expanding heating networks in Germany, by an average of 100,000 buildings a year. So far, only about 14 percent of buildings are supplied with district heating.
Ready for expansion
"We also need planning security and transparency in the expansion of heating networks, so that owners know at an early stage whether their house can be connected," Geywitz said. With the law for the local heat planning the Federal Government wants to achieve this. On behalf of the Energy Efficiency Association for Heating, Cooling and CHP (AGFW), Hansjörg Roll emphasized the high level of willingness to implement these projects. However for it also reliable financial promotion must come from the federation and as fast as possible a clear and binding legal framework for the advancement of the heat nets be created.
Ramona pop, Vorständin of the consumer center Federal association (VZBV) underlined that it must give for a quasi monopoly of the district heating operators a price supervision "if possible country widely". In addition, she said, promotion must ensure that tenants do not end up bearing the costly network expansion alone. She suggested that heat producers other than the network operator should also be given the chance to feed into the networks in order to achieve favorable prices.
Energy industry calls for more money
Kerstin Andreae, chairwoman of BDEW's executive board, said that from the energy industry's point of view, a stable, planning-secure and adequate funding framework is necessary for the district heating ramp-up. He added that the German government should promptly enable or facilitate the use of biogas and hydrogen in cogeneration plants. "There must be dovetailing here with the power plant strategy and hydrogen network planning," Andreae said.
The municipal utilities association VKU still sees hurdles to expansion. Chief executive Ingbert Liebing called for, among other things, an extension of the annual three billion euro subsidy until 2026 into the 2030s. "There must be an interlocking of the Building Energy Act with municipal heat planning," Liebing said. In the end, he said, the expansion of district heating will be decided locally, by the suppliers and by the municipalities, which must provide clarity for customers and for network operators.
Gerd Landsberg, chief executive of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, called for "when establishing a local or district heating network, as a rule, there is also a connection and use obligation to ensure the economic viability of the systems." This was rejected by Ramona Pop. The house owners should be convinced about favorable prices, but not forced to the connection.
The Federal Government plans on the one hand a reform of the building energy law (GEG) as well as a reform of the local heat planning. According to the bill, states and municipalities are to submit plans in the coming years on how they intend to convert their heating infrastructure. With the prospect of district heating, regulations on the use of renewable energy in individual heating systems would no longer apply. In the fall, there will be a new meeting on district heating, to which today's suggestions will be translated into measures, Habeck announced.
The Common Declaration on District Heating Expansion is available on the Internet.
Author: Susanne Harmsen
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