Heat bill general scheme to be drafted by 2025

In targets outlined in Climate Action Plan 2024, the Government must establish a regulatory model for district heating which “ensures consumer protection and the delivery of a vibrant heating industry”.

Published in December 2023, five months after the release of the District Heating Group Steering Committee’s report in August 2023, Climate Action Plan 2024 (CAP24) reaffirms the Government’s longstanding commitment to transition to a heating capacity of 2.7 TWh by district heating, as well as outlining a target of 0.7 TWh for residential heating by 2025.

CAP24 calls for up to 0.8 TWh of district heating installed capacity across both the residential and commercial building stock by 2025, and up to 2.7 TWh by 2030. To achieve this, all buildings will need to switch to heat pumps, efficient district heating, or other renewable sources by 2050 to meet the national climate objective.

Government has committed to drafting the general scheme of a heat bill by 2025 to establish a regulatory model for district heating that ensures consumer protection and the delivery of a vibrant district heating industry.

Through this, policy pathways to decarbonise the residential, commercial, and public subsectors are expected to emerge which will build on progress currently taking place in the areas of retrofit and decarbonisation; building regulations and standards; and in developing legal and regulatory frameworks for district heating. These policy pathways are shaped through short- and medium-term targets outlined in CAP24.

Short-term targets

By 2025, government is aiming to:

• implement the recommendations of the report of the District Heating Steering Group to supply up to 0.7 TWh of district heating to decarbonise residential heating;
• develop legislation to underpin the structures necessary to roll out district heating, thereby accelerating the transition to renewable heat; and
• implement the recommendations of the report of the District Heating Steering Group to supply up to 0.1 TWh of district heating infrastructure to decarbonise heating in commercial and public buildings, including a mandate for public sector bodies to connect to district heating, where possible.

Medium- to long-term targets

By 2030, government is aiming to:

• supply up to 2.5 TWh of district heating to decarbonise residential heating; and
• supply 0.2 TWh of district heating infrastructure to decarbonise heating in commercial and public buildings.

On these targets, CAP24 specifies that district heating is intended to play a “complementary role” to the Government’s National Retrofit Programme, with district heating only an option in certain large population centres. District heating is further outlined as an option for the decarbonisation of public sector buildings.

“For district heating, public sector customers could also provide an important anchor to projects, and government has approved the drafting of legislation on district heating that will, inter alia, mandate connections by the public sector to district heating, when available to those buildings. However, there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to decarbonising public sector buildings,” CAP24 states.

District Heating Steering Group Report

The District Heating Steering Group Report was approved by government and subsequently launched at the Dublin Waste-to-Energy Facility (Poolbeg Incinerator) in August 2023.

The contribution that district heating can make to Ireland’s energy and climate goals has long been recognised, with the District Heating Steering Group finding that up to 54 per cent of heat demand in Ireland could be provided by district heating from renewable sources.

Established in 2022 to coordinate the development of district heating policy and to deliver on this potential, the District Heating Steering Group’s final report includes a suite of recommendations that set the future policy direction. Following the official launch of the report, a District Heating Working Group was convened to oversee the implementation of its recommendations.

The Heat and Built Environment Delivery Taskforce, established by recommendation of the District Heating Group Steering Committee, focuses on acceleration of system-wide programme and project delivery for the measures identified. The Energy Efficiency Directive takes the principle of “energy efficiency first” as a key policy requirement for buildings.

Speaking following the publication of the steering group report, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD, said: “We must radically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and transition to more sustainable, low-carbon alternatives – particularly to heat our buildings. District heating has a key role to play in that.”