New tools make municipal heat planning easier

Berlin, Germany, 7 March 2024. The Heat Planning Act was enacted in Germany this year, covering heat planning and decarbonisation of the heating networks. Even if the transposition into state law is still largely pending, the approximately 10,700 municipalities have a clear task: Municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants must draw up a municipal heat plan by mid-June 2026, whereas smaller municipalities will have time until mid-2028. In addition to other support services, the dena’s Centre of Expertise for the Municipal Heating Transition offers the following on its website (www.kww-halle.de), which provides three new tools to support municipalities in preparing and implementing their heat planning.

Robert Brückmann, head of the Centre of Expertise for the Municipal Heating Transition, stated, ‘we see in our day-to-day work that many muncipalities are looking for templates, examples and comparative values to guide them in their heat planning activities. We are responding to this with our three-pronged approach of catalogue of model services, service provider directory and data compass. We will continue to expand this toolbox in order to simplify municipal heat planning over the course of the year.’

Municipal Heating Transition catalogue of model services: simpler tendering processes

The municipal heat plan is usually drawn up by an external service provider on behalf of the municipality. This service needs to be put out to tender. The Municipal Heating Transition catalogue of model services serves as a template for the tendering process and can be adapted to the framework conditions of the respective municipality. The current version of the Municipal Heating Transition catalogue of model services is aimed at municipalities that have submitted an funding application under funding priority 4.1.11 ‘Drawing up a municipal heat plan’ of the municipal directive by 4 December 2023. It specifies the services that are only roughly outlined in the municipal directive and its technical annex. In addition, the requirements arising from the Heat Planning Act were taken into account wherever possible.  This catalogue of model services gives municipalities a better overview of the scope of municipal heat planning. In turn, the catalogue makes it easier for service companies to prepare offers. All in all, the Municipal Heating Transition catalogue of model services ensures better comparability of offers, which benefits both the municipality and the bidders.

Municipal Heating Transition service provider directory: Efficient search of providers

The Municipal Heating Transition service provider directory promotes the exchange between municipalities and service providers, for example, in the preparation of municipal heat planning. It serves as an initial overview of potential service providers and enables municipalities to filter providers based on their requirements according to range of services and region. Provider profiles provide a rough impression of the providers. Detailed information can then be found on the respective websites.

Municipal Heating Transition Data Compass: Clarify the situation regarding sources

Municipal heat planning is based on data, such as details of the building structure, consumption data and heat sources, most of which is available, but unfortunately this information is not always in one place. The Municipal Heating Transition Data Compass provides an overview of who is required to provide which data and helps request the data from the respective data holders in accordance with the legal requirements. This centre of expertise compiles and updates the state-specific overviews in dialogue with the state energy agencies, among others, and publishes them on its website as they become available. Over the course of the year, the centre of expertise will expand this service into a metadatabase that can be used to directly access all these data.

About the Centre of Expertise for the Municipal Heating Transition

Since its launch in Halle an der Saale in April 2022, dena’s Centre of Expertise for the Municipal Heating Transition works on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action to prepare reliable services for municipal heat planning, first-hand expertise and consultancy material and provide it to stakeholders of the municipal heating transition in Germany. Please visit www.kww-halle.de for further information.