Coalition bickers about heat transition
District heating should do the trick
By Laura Esslinger
06/18/2023, 5:25 p.m
After agreement is before agreement. Many questions about the heating law are still open – including the role that district heating will play in the energy transition.
Can the mass connection of households to the district heating network bring about the heat transition? If Economics Minister Robert Habeck and Building Minister Clara Geywitz have their way, the type of heating should make an important contribution towards climate-friendly heating, at least in the near future.
According to Geywitz, 100,000 buildings per year could also be supplied with district heating. In case of doubt, owners would then not have to replace their existing oil or gas heating system with a climate-friendly one if it breaks down, but could simply switch to district heating.
However, consumer advocates warn that simply expanding the technology is not enough, and that the market must also be regulated. District heating is not without its benefits for customers and can also bring disadvantages. For example, there should be no obligation to connect and use, demanded Germany’s top consumer advocate Ramona Pop at the so-called district heating summit with the two responsible ministers and business associations.
The board member of the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations pointed out that the previous network and the providers were “unregulated monopolies”, “and that is also reflected in the prices in one place or another,” says Pop. Operators could currently simply set prices without consumers being able to understand them transparently. In addition, the conversion must “remain affordable” for all those who are yet to be connected to the district heating network. “Tenants are not allowed to bear the cost of allocations alone,” says Pop. You also need reasonable control over prices, preferably a “systematic nationwide price control”.
District heating not necessarily climate-friendly
As things stand at present, what would consumers be getting themselves into if they were connected to the district heating network – and what advantages and disadvantages would that have?
A previous disadvantage is that district heating per se is not climate-friendly: The heat, which is conducted through insulated pipes directly into the connected residential buildings, is mainly generated from fossil fuels. According to data from the Federal Ministry of Economics from 2018, the energy for this comes from 42 percent gas, 25 percent hard coal or lignite and one percent mineral oil. 32 percent of district heating comes from biomass, waste and industrial waste heat. Increasingly, however, renewable energy sources are also being used in combined heat and power plants.
Consumers for whom ecological heating is important cannot simply change their supplier, as is the case with gas heating – this is another disadvantage of district heating. Planning and operation of the power plant and the networks are carried out by one and the same company. “The construction of a double infrastructure by another company would be uneconomical. Therefore, every district heating company is a local monopolist,” complain the consumer centers. They want more competition.
Municipalities can also prescribe the use of district heating for some properties, which restricts owners. Consumer advocates also criticize special legal features that allow, for example, very long contracts to be concluded for a period of up to ten years.
In favor of district heating is that it can be relatively cheap. “Some providers offer attractive prices,” according to the consumer advice center. Another advantage is that owners do not need their own heating system and save on maintenance costs, for example. If your own provider also relies on renewable energies, district heating customers can make an active contribution to climate protection. Some municipal utilities and municipalities also pay grants for connection to the district heating network and subsidize them with around 500 to 3000 euros.
This text appeared first at “Capital”.