The municipality as the owner of the heating network: The cabinet decided today that this should be the starting point for new heating networks. But in order not to scare off the energy companies too much, existing networks will remain in the hands of their private owners for decades to come. Nevertheless, experts and companies fear that the draft law will mean that new heating networks will be added less quickly.

“Households benefit from being able to connect to the grid quickly,” says Maarten van Poelgeest, former chair of the Climate Table for the Built Environment. A heating network should serve as a cheap alternative to heating with natural gas, especially in cities.

A municipal owner of a heating network is logical in itself, says Van Poelgeest. “A new heating network is worthwhile if around 3,000 households are connected.” The main risk is that not enough people are doing it. “Only the municipality can influence this risk, because they can choose which parts of the city should be taken off the gas network.”

And because the municipality holds the key to success, it should be given ownership and therefore the risk, argues Van Poelgeest.

In addition, the government sees the pipelines, which have to supply more and more households with heat, as “vital infrastructure”. That should be public property, just like, for example, the railroad, drinking water pipes and the gas and electricity grid.

Another advantage is that the state does not have to make a profit with a heating network. “This allows us to be active in parts of the city that are not interesting for private companies and charge a lower price,” says Dick Takkebos, director of WarmteStad, a Groningen heating network owned by the municipality of Groningen and the public water company Groningen.

“Target probably unreachable”

But there are also arguments against the exclusion of private companies. In fact, PWC consultants who have looked at the plans on behalf of the ministry are extremely critical.

They believe that companies will invest much less money in the development and construction of heat networks. And that while 90 percent of current heat networks are managed by private heat companies, sometimes with governments as minority shareholders.

The government’s plans could therefore face “severe delays”, making the target of connecting another 500,000 homes by 2030 likely unattainable.

This is also the sound that could be heard yesterday – when some of the plans had already leaked out – and today from large heating companies such as Eneco, Vattenfall and Ennatural. Vattenfall even announced that it would stop expanding new heating networks.

Until 2031 the time

The Minister responsible, Jetten, admits the risk that the heating companies will withdraw and with them the necessary knowledge and many millions of euros will be lost. In order to keep heating networks interesting, he has come up with a few exceptions, he writes to the House of Representatives.

Municipalities may nominate private companies until 2031 if it is too complicated to set up a heating network yourself. A company that installs such a heating network can operate it for another 20 to 30 years, so that the costs are amortized.

In addition, the government will not buy any existing heating networks for the time being. In addition, the operators of these networks will be allowed to expand to neighboring counties in the coming years.

It remains to be seen whether the companies will make new plans in the coming years. “For example, it is not yet clear what value the networks will have after 30 years,” said a Vattenfall spokesman. While this value is essential for making a budget. “As long as you have that kind of uncertainty, new developments stall.”