Questionnaire on District Heating for April 30

[sorcha]

Dear CECODHAS-Housing Europe Energy Experts Network,

At our last energy experts meeting on March 23rd, we had 3 presentations and a discussion on district heating in the EU.

The presentations by:

Sabine Froning, Secretary General, Euroheat and Power - Eco-efficiency and EU legislation, Mia Torpe, HSB - District heating in Sweden & Eva Pineau, USH - District heating in France can be found here: http://www.powerhouseeurope.eu/polic...23_march_2010/

It became clear during the meeting that many of you are facing the same issues regarding for e.g. pricing. Although all agree that district heating can offer environmentally friendly solutions, particularly when run on renewables, however a lack of transparency when it comes to prices (which are 20% higher than natural gas in the Netherland and France) and growing fixed prices when consumption is reduced (Sweden), the monopolization of markets, with sometimes and obligation to use the system with no option to leave, are causing problems for some members of CECODHAS. These problems can also mean that the environmentally positive effects of district heating are not fully exploited.

The District Heating European interest group Euroheat and Power is interested to dialogue with CECODHAS-Housing Europe on these issues and has asked for a contribution at its forthcoming conference. To ensure a constructive dialogue at EU level and to assist your work at national/local level, it is necessary to get a more accurate picture of the issues at hand.

Therefore, as a follow-up the Union Sociale pour l'habitat has formulated some questions which will help us to establish common issues facing CECODHAS-Housing Europe members.


To send us your answers to these questions ( by April 30th) , Please 1) view the questions, 2) copy the questions using the ‘control’ ‘c’ buttons, 3) click on the button 'post reply', 4) paste the questions into your reply using the ‘control’ ‘v’, 5) add your answers as available. ( to avoid losing your answers you may prefer to write them in word first). .

We are aware that it may not be possible for you to access all the requested information, please answer those possible for you.

All additional related contributions and comments are welcome,

In your countries:

Q. 1 Number of district heating, power, km or miles of pipes?
Q. 2 Customer’s segmentation? (Residential sector, social housing, industrial, others…)
Q. 3 Size of district heating systems, period of construction
Q. 4 Percentage of the district heating which use renewable energy sources
Q. 5 Who are the owners of the district heating systems? How are they managing (directly by local authority? With a mandate? If yes, how long are the concessions? Numbers of private companies which owned and manage district heating?
Pricing structure
Q.7 In case of pricing structure with fix part and variable part, how is it calculated?
Q.8 How do the prices of heat supplied through district heating compare to other systems? For example, in France some district heating systems could be 20% more expansive compared to natural gas boiler
Q.9 In your countries, have you got performance indicators or other specific tools to control district heating performance?
Q.10 Is there regulation?
Q.11 Is it mandatory for SHO to connect to district heating when there is one on the territory?
Q.12 Is there a possibility to re-negotiate prices, if yes what are the conditions?
Q.13 Mains difficulties, challenges? Proposals to improve performance of district heating?

[Noel Rice]

In Northern Ireland,

Q. 1 Number of district heating, power, km or miles of pipes?

There are only two District Heating schemes that I am aware of in Northern Ireland involving approximately 3 km of pipes.

Q. 2 Customer’s segmentation? (Residential sector, social housing, industrial, others…)

The first is in social housing linking two sheltered housing buildings and supplying heat to around 80 housing units. The second is a private sector housing development of around 100 dwellings.

Q. 3 Size of district heating systems, period of construction

The first scheme supplying 80 dwellings is around 10 years old and the second supplying 100 units is one year old.

Q. 4 Percentage of the district heating which use renewable energy sources

Only one of these two schemes uses renewable energy. It is a biomass plant using wood chips.

Q. 5

Who are the owners of the district heating systems? The first is Fold Housing Association and the second is a private developer called the Carvill Group.

How are they managing (directly by local authority?). The first is managed directly and the second is managed by an Energy Services Contractor on behalf of the developer.

With a mandate? If yes, how long are the concessions? Don’t know.

Numbers of private companies which owned and manage district heating? One.
Pricing structure

Q.7 In case of pricing structure with fix part and variable part, how is it calculated? Don’t know.

Q.8 How do the prices of heat supplied through district heating compare to other systems? For example, in
France some district heating systems could be 20% more expansive compared to natural gas boiler

I am not sure about the first scheme. The second scheme (biomass) is about 20% cheaper than a natural gas boiler.

Q.9 In your countries, have you got performance indicators or other specific tools to control district heating performance? Don’t know.

Q.10 Is there regulation? No.

Q.11 Is it mandatory for SHO to connect to district heating when there is one on the territory? No, it is not mandatory.

Q.12 Is there a possibility to re-negotiate prices, if yes what are the conditions? Don’t know.

Q.13 Mains difficulties, challenges? Proposals to improve performance of district heating? The main challenge in Northern Ireland is to persuade social housing organizations and private developers to embrace District Heating. Due to bad experiences of District Heating in the 1970s, housing providers have been reluctant to try it again, despite its success in mainland Europe.

[Daniela]

Dear all,
about Italy we are gathering information in order to post common answers.


Daniela - Federcasa

[Bernard Wallyn]

In FLANDERS (BE) :

Q. 1 Number of district heating, power, km or miles of pipes?
No exact data available.
About 1.7% of all social dwellings (15 multifamily buildings / about 1 500 apartments) are connected to district heating. Most systems are very local (one central heating plant for several multi-storey buildings and one family dwellings)
Some larger systems disappeared more then 10 years ago.

Q. 2 Customer’s segmentation? (Residential sector, social housing, industrial, others…)
Social sector.

Q. 3 Size of district heating systems, period of construction
No data.

Q. 4 Percentage of the district heating which use renewable energy sources
Only 1 small unit (pellets).
Half of the units uses CHP (Combined Heat and Power production).

Q. 5 Who are the owners of the district heating systems? How are they managing (directly by local authority? With a mandate? If yes, how long are the concessions? Numbers of private companies which owned and manage district heating?
Pricing structure
Social housing companies own in most cases the systems. One is connected to an urban system. In some cases the CHP is owned and managed by an electricity producer (Electrabel).

Q.7 In case of pricing structure with fix part and variable part, how is it calculated?
Very variable.
Fixed part is generally proportional to the surface / volume of the apartment.

Q.8 How do the prices of heat supplied through district heating compare to other systems? For example, in France some district heating systems could be 20% more expansive compared to natural gas boiler

Q.9 In your countries, have you got performance indicators or other specific tools to control district heating performance?
No.

Q.10 Is there regulation?
There is a general regulation, but not specific to district heating.

Q.11 Is it mandatory for SHO to connect to district heating when there is one on the territory?
No.

Q.12 Is there a possibility to re-negotiate prices, if yes what are the conditions?


Q.13 Mains difficulties, challenges? Proposals to improve performance of district heating?
District heating has always been limited to (parts of) some cities as Gent and Aalst.