Events

Webinar

Keeping our cities efficiently warm

First in a series of KeepWarm webinars on the modernisation of district heating systems

10 July 2020, 10:00 - 11:30

The KeepWarm project aims to accelerate cost-effective investment in the modernisation of district heating systems (DHS), particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, where DHS are often old, inefficient and remain overly reliant on fossil fuels.

KeepWarm promotes sustainable pathways to retrofit existing DHS by upgrading efficiency and switching to local, greener energy sources.

By and large, energy efficiency retrofits (e.g. boiler-house upgrades, reductions in heat loss in the grid, etc.) represent the necessary first steps that many DHS must address before they can realistically transition to renewable energy sources and/or use of excess heat. It is crucial that political and financial frameworks more strongly support forward-thinking DHS.

In this context, the KeepWarm project is offering a webinar series on the modernisation of district heating systems.

The first webinar in the series will look into relevant examples from three of KeepWarm’s target countries, namely: Austria, Czech Republic and Ukraine. The common thread in all three cases will be about DHS-efficiency retrofits, with differing local contexts offering variety in perspectives:

  • Austria: small DHS have already switched to biomass, and are looking to optimise boiler-houses, as well as expand their networks
  • Czech Republic: large DHS are not yet using renewables, and there is a focus on fully upgrading from older steam-based systems to a modern hot-water DHS
  • Ukraine: large DHS will soon upgrade to using biomass; in the meantime, they are implementing energy efficiency business models to demonstrate that these are financially feasible

In addition to overviewing these three national cases, KeepWarm will also use the webinar to launch its newest public materials. This includes the “DHS Showroom”, which highlights the work being done by all 23 DHS participating in the project, and is meant to inspire further replication and investments.

Agenda

  • Welcome and moderation: ICLEI Europe, George Stiff and Carsten Rothballer
  • Optimisation of biomass district heating and their economy in Austria: Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry in Styria, Klaus Engelmann
  • Modernisation of the heat distribution network in DHS Brno, Czech Republic: Association for District Heating of the Czech Republic, Martin Hajek
  • Energy Efficiency Investment in District Heating in Ukrainian cities: LLC KT-Energy, Kyryl Tomliak
  • Moderated Q&A
  • Wrap-up and conclusions: ICLEI Europe, Carsten Rothballer

Register here.

See the programme here.