Eline van den Ende

Eline van den Ende
HVC

Title: "Dependent on your neighbours? And other challenges for engaging home-owners in heat transition plans"

<link file:87632 _blank>• Download the presentation here.

The heat transition is changing the industry’s perspective on the development of district heating networks in the built environment: from business-to-business and demand driven, to business-to-consumer and policy driven.

Municipalities are looking for ways to assign districts or areas which they find suitable for district heating. However, under current regulation and in pilot programmes for “natural gas free districts”, the possibilities for developing district heating infrastructure continue to depend on the acceptance of residents for the technology and the willingness of building owners to invest in the infrastructure.

This new perspective therefore demands a re-imagination of the process of design and development of district heating infrastructure. 

We at HVC support the municipalities in designing these new type of (community) processes which are aimed at achieving acceptance of change and constructive decision making.

In this presentation, our current view on the four stages of these community processes will be discussed: 1) preparation, 2) shared knowledge and process design, 3) decision-support, and 4) unburdening in execution.

These four stages will be illustrated with examples from practice combined with current and future challenges.