4th generation district heating and cooling (4DHC) represents a smart city development opportunity: it provides a low-temperature distribution system that minimises heat loss, integrates energy storage and renewable energy sources, and supplies multiple low energy buildings. The HeatNet NWE project provides guidance for developers of such intelligent systems, based on the experience of 6 pilot cities. On 9th December, the HeatNet NWE team, in cooperation with the Covenant of Mayors, organised a webinar moderated by Kristina Dely from Energy Cities. You can watch the recording of this webinar and download the presentations at the end of this article.
Eva Hoos, Policy Officer at DG ENERGY, presented the different directives which have an impact on the development of 4DHC networks. She underlined the importance of the financing support of the EU for clean technologies, as well as the importance of renewable and citizen energy communities which will more and more play a role in the development of renewable thermal energy.
John O’Shea, Energy Systems Analyst at CODEMA (Dublin’s Energy Agency), especially highlighted the process done by the city councils of Dublin area and CODEMA to map the heat demand, the heat sources and to identify DHC development areas. Then key stakeholders were involved, which led to the development of the Tallaght DHC scheme based on the heat recovery from a data center. You can find more information in the South Dublin Transition Roadmap.
Julien Joubert, in charge of different heating and cooling projects at Energy Cities, presented the procurement guide produced by the HeatNet NWE team which provides guidance on procuring quality goods and services for 4GDHC. A key message is that the procurement process should be adapted to the intended business model of the DHC scheme. Some success factors, possible providers, and the procurement procedures to use have been identified for different services and goods (like local heat map, techno-economic study, heat supply).
Finally Paul Voss, Managing Director at Euroheat & Power, stressed the importance of having the voices of cities heard by the European institutions: cities across Europe are acting to decarbonise their energy via district heating and cooling and they should be supported to deliver the energy transition. EuroHeat&Power gathered the testimonies of cities in a video that you can see here.
