The online event “Municipal Heat Planning – Needs, Potential, and Software Solutions for Municipal Heat Planning,” held this past spring , was good in terms of attendance, with nearly 100 participants, and, like the first event in October 2023, was very well received by those interested. The online event was once again organized and conducted as part of the Saxon transfer project Saxony5.

The participants included representatives from municipalities across Saxony, energy suppliers, planning firms, research institutions, and economic development agencies, as well as providers of established software solutions for municipal heat planning.

Prof. Matthias Kunick (Chair of “Energy System Technology”) from the University of Applied Sciences in Zittau/Görlitz, as subproject manager for the “Energy” transfer field within the Saxony5 consortium, welcomed the guests and introduced the topic of municipal heat planning as well as the identified focal points of “needs and potential.”

Mr. Uwe Kluge of the Saxon Energy Agency SAENA GmbH was the first speaker to take up the topic in his presentation on “Framework Conditions for Assessing Demand and Potential,” specifying which data is required on the demand side and which is available on the potential side, and then addressed the technical feasibility and limitations of currently existing energy systems—specifically the medium- and low-voltage distribution networks. The key takeaway from his presentation was that the Heat Planning and Building Energy Act must be transposed into state regulations to enable the necessary data collection and processing.

Mr. Kluge was followed by Ms. Antje Fritzsche of the Saxon Energy Agency SAENA GmbH, who presented SAENA’s “Municipal Heat Planning” service center. She presented the support services available to participants and specifically provided information about the informational materials and resources available online.

The joint presentation by SAENA was followed by a joint talk by Martin Herling and Jonas Pfeiffer from the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, who provided participants with an “overview of open-source data and tools for developing neighborhood concepts.” The speakers made it clear that the focus of their work on developing their own software tool lies on combining renewable energy sources to ensure the most cost-effective and reliable heat supply possible, while taking into account not only the supply side but also building retrofit measures and potential funding opportunities. Based on a cost-effectiveness analysis of various options, they intend to derive and present recommendations for action in the future. At the conclusion of the presentation, Mr. Herling, a project staff member in the Saxony5 collaborative project, drew attention to the university’s Celsiuz Transfer Lab. He encouraged the participants to use the (interactive) transfer space for constructive work on the complex topic of “municipal heat planning.”

The presentations by SAENA and Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences were followed by three one-hour sessions each from three providers on software solutions for municipal heat planning. The companies ENEKA - Energie & Karten GmbH, greenventory GmbH, and enersis Europe GmbH took turns presenting themselves and their software tools (in some cases live) and provided practical case studies based on a sample municipality. This gave participants initial insights into the respective data sets and algorithms, the tools’ usability and presentation of results, the expected accuracy of the tools, and their reusability and licensing options.

In summary, the event highlighted that the success of municipal heat planning depends on three key factors:

• Accuracy, availability, and usability of data,
• expertise and collaboration among planners, service agencies, municipalities, and their energy providers,
• acceptance and citizen participation.

Throughout the event, all speakers were available to participants in so-called breakout rooms for personal contact and to answer further detailed questions.

We would like to thank all the speakers for their extraordinary dedication and the participants for their keen interest in the event.