District heating and cooling
Article 24
1
Member States shall ensure that information on the energy performance and the share of renewable energy in their district heating and cooling systems is provided to final consumers in an easily accessible manner, such as on the suppliers' websites, on annual bills or upon request.
2
Member States shall lay down the necessary measures and conditions to allow customers of district heating or cooling systems which are not efficient district heating and cooling systems, or which are not such a system by 31 December 2025 on the basis of a plan approved by the competent authority, to disconnect by terminating or modifying their contract in order to produce heating or cooling from renewable sources themselves.
Where the termination of a contract is linked to physical disconnection, such a termination may be made conditional on compensation for the costs directly incurred as a result of the physical disconnection and for the undepreciated portion of assets needed to provide heat and cold to that customer.
3
Member States may restrict the right to disconnect by terminating or modifying a contract in accordance with paragraph 2 to customers who can demonstrate that the planned alternative supply solution for heating or cooling results in a significantly better energy performance. The energy-performance assessment of the alternative supply solution may be based on the energy performance certificate.
4
Member States shall lay down the necessary measures to ensure that district heating and cooling systems contribute to the increase referred to in Article 23(1) of this Directive by implementing at least one of the two following options:
a
Endeavour to increase the share of energy from renewable sources and from waste heat and cold in district heating and cooling by at least one percentage point as an annual average calculated for the period 2021 to 2025 and for the period 2026 to 2030, starting from the share of energy from renewable sources and from waste heat and cold in district heating and cooling in 2020, expressed in terms of share of final energy consumption in district heating and cooling, by implementing measures that can be expected to trigger that average annual increase in years with normal climatic conditions.
Member States with a share of energy from renewable sources and from waste heat and cold in district heating and cooling above 60 % may count any such share as fulfilling the average annual increase referred to in the first subparagraph of this point.
Member States shall lay down the necessary measures to implement the average annual increase referred to in the first subparagraph of this point in their integrated national energy and climate plans pursuant to Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2018/1999.
b
Ensure that operators of district heating or cooling systems are obliged to connect suppliers of energy from renewable sources and from waste heat and cold or are obliged to offer to connect and purchase heat or cold from renewable sources and from waste heat and cold from third-party suppliers based on non-discriminatory criteria set by the competent authority of the Member State concerned, where they need to do one or more of the following:
1. meet demand from new customers;
2. replace existing heat or cold generation capacity;
3. expand existing heat or cold generation capacity.
5
Where a Member State exercises the option referred to in point (b) of paragraph 4, an operator of a district heating or cooling system may refuse to connect and to purchase heat or cold from a third-party supplier where:
a
the system lacks the necessary capacity due to other supplies of waste heat and cold, of heat or cold from renewable sources or of heat or cold produced by high-efficiency cogeneration;
b
the heat or cold from the third-party supplier does not meet the technical parameters necessary to connect and ensure the reliable and safe operation of the district heating and cooling system; or
c
the operator can demonstrate that providing access would lead to an excessive heat or cold cost increase for final customers compared to the cost of using the main local heat or cold supply with which the renewable source or waste heat and cold would compete.
Member States shall ensure that, when an operator of a district heating or cooling system refuses to connect a supplier of heating or cooling pursuant to the first subparagraph, information on the reasons for the refusal, as well as the conditions to be met and measures to be taken in the system in order to enable the connection, is provided by that operator to the competent authority in accordance with paragraph 9.
6
Where a Member State exercises the option referred to in point (b) of paragraph 4, it may exempt operators of the following district heating and cooling systems from the application of that point:
a
efficient district heating and cooling;
b
efficient district heating and cooling that exploits high-efficiency cogeneration;
c
district heating and cooling that, on the basis of a plan approved by the competent authority, is efficient district heating and cooling by 31 December 2025;
d
district heating and cooling with a total rated thermal input below 20 MW.
7
The right to disconnect by terminating or modifying a contract in accordance with paragraph 2 may be exercised by individual customers, by joint undertakings formed by customers or by parties acting on behalf of customers. For multi-apartment blocks, such disconnection may be exercised only at a whole building level in accordance with the applicable housing law.
8
Member States shall require electricity distribution system operators to assess at least every four years, in cooperation with the operators of district heating or cooling systems in their respective area, the potential for district heating or cooling systems to provide balancing and other system services, including demand response and storing of excess electricity from renewable sources, and whether the use of the identified potential would be more resource- and cost-efficient than alternative solutions.
9
Member States shall ensure that the rights of consumers and the rules for operating district heating and cooling systems in accordance with this Article are clearly defined and enforced by the competent authority.
10
A Member State shall not be required to apply paragraphs 2 to 9 of this Article where:
a
its share of district heating and cooling is less than or equal to 2 % of the overall consumption of energy in heating and cooling on 24 December 2018;
b
its share of district heating and cooling is increased above 2 % by developing new efficient district heating and cooling based on its integrated national energy and climate plan pursuant to Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 or the assessment referred to in Article 15(7) of this Directive; or
c
its share of systems referred to in paragraph 6 of this Article constitutes over 90 % of total sales of its district heating and cooling.