Source: Energy & Management Powernews, February 17, 2022
Companies and organizations such as the "DENEFF HDL_Hub" urge the Federal Ministry of Economics to promptly advance the coordination process for the amendment of the AVB FernwärmeV.
Energy service providers (EDL) such as Eon, Steag, Kofler Energies, the industry expert Heinz Ullrich Brosziewski and Rüdiger Lohse of the industry association Deneff EDL Hub protest: The changed "regulation over general conditions for the supply with district heating" (AVB FernwärmeV) strangles projects in the beginning to use renewable energies and waste heat with innovative and highly efficient heat networks, and to make in such a way the heat turnaround the successful project.
Because the changes of the legal basic conditions for the heat supply decided in the past October withdraw the economic and legal basis from the building of the necessary infrastructure, in order to be able to use for example waste heat from computing centers, heat pumps or solar heat for the heating of quarters or enterprises. In short: they mean a stop in necessary investments in climate protection.
With regard to the changes in the AVB FernwärmeV, the industry is now hoping for the next - larger - amendment, which is in the works. A draft from the Federal Ministry of Economics is not yet there, but should come in the coming days. Jochen Handke, Managing Director of Eon Energy Solutions, for example, warns: "We need investment security in order to advance the heat turnaround. However, the latest changes to the General Supply Conditions have exactly the opposite effect. As a result, investment incentives for the refurbishment and new construction of heating networks and for new innovative and sustainable projects are lost."
The current new regulations grant customers of heat from networks, for example, the option to terminate during the term of the contract. This applies ironically in particular if nets are converted to renewable energies, explains the Deneff EDL Hub. This one-sided legal situation causes particular hardship for heat suppliers who invest in renewable heat supply in neighborhoods and buildings, it says. If customers jump off, the warmth from the usually small, local nets, differently than with gas or current nets, cannot be supplied simply to arbitrary other customers.
So the heat net expert Heinz Ullrich Brosziewski states: "The transformation of heat nets on renewable energies and highly efficient KWK is connected with an enormously high financial expenditure. The hectic changes in the legal framework create incalculable risks. From my consulting practice, numerous new and conversion projects have come to a standstill because the heating network operators have no reliable perspective."
Maximum uncertainty in the EDL sector
Energy service providers see themselves in a dilemma: on the one hand, they are supposed to build the politically desired innovative heat networks as quickly as possible, but on the other hand, the German government is currently depriving them of the economic and legal basis.
The AVB district heating is not the only regulatory shackle plaguing providers. Also the heat supply regulation (WärmeLV) represents according to opinion of the energy service provider industry already for years for the heat suppliers an obstacle: With the requirement of the cost neutrality with the heat supply to dwellings heat suppliers cannot, as demanded by the policy, the necessary investments in renewable energies into the market to bring
"The heat supply regulation and now up-to-date the general supply conditions led to the maximum uncertainty of the industry and also the potential customers. The contradiction between the political goals and the unsuitable framework conditions must now be resolved," summarizes Rolf Naster of Kofler Energies.
Therefore, the urgent call for help to the new federal government is to reform the essential regulations and create fair conditions for heat suppliers, owners and tenants. This also includes the provision of the new funding program "Bundesprogramm Effiziente Wärmenetze" (Federal Program for Efficient Heat Networks), which is intended to create the necessary incentives to achieve the ambitious climate targets. Unfortunately, the program has been waiting for many months for approval by the EU Commission under state aid law.
Rüdiger Saß, sales manager of Steag New Energies, adds: "Thus, the implementation of municipal heat planning will certainly not be able to take place despite the planned funding programs. Due to the change in the general supply conditions, we are currently unable to make any new investment decisions for the conversion of heating networks to renewables and for the construction of new heating networks."
The establishment of a balance in the heat supply between decarbonization, consumer protection and long-term plannable economic efficiency is now particularly important. For example, this could be done through special protective measures for the energy transition so important and economically vulnerable small and medium-sized heat supplies, suggest Martin Bornholdt and Rüdiger Lohse of the industry network Deneff EDL Hub.
Author: Heidi Roider
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