Regulatory models for a climate-neutral district heating supply

The project involves the conceptual development and evaluation of different regulatory models for opening up heat networks to third parties. The analysis aims to provide an overview of the basic functionalities of the different models and to identify elements that would need to be addressed by the regulatory regime. The functional description of the models addresses both economic and technical aspects. The economic aspects include questions on potential business cases associated with the regulatory models, financing of grid operation, allocation of connection costs, allocation of grid expansion costs associated with third party feed-in, price formation, incentive mechanisms for RE/industrial waste heat, incentives for new market entrants. Technical aspects include issues of reserve capacity, balancing, temperature requirements, etc. The functional design of the models is oriented towards the goal of decarbonising the heat networks.