District heating and cooling (DHC) play a pivotal role in the EU’s strategy to decarbonise the heating and cooling sector while enhancing electricity grid stability through flexibility services. Achieving the EU’s ambitious targets requires both the development of new DHC networks and the deep decarbonisation of existing ones to meet the “efficient DHC” criteria outlined in the recast Energy Efficiency Directive (EED).

At Sustainable Places, five LIFE CET DHC projects exchanged insights on the main challenges of decarbonising existing networks and presented effective strategies for delivering viable, bankable renovation plans. Each project showcased its approach to decarbonising selected case study networks.

In the second part of the session, a roundtable discussion addressed the following key topics:

• The challenge of the EED’s “rolling horizon”: How can decarbonisation projects be designed to meet short- and medium-term environmental obligations while anticipating increasingly stringent future criteria for efficient DHC?

• Disconnections and additions in DHC systems: Analysis of the phenomenon, its drivers and regulatory context, and how to address these dynamics within an investment case.

The session featured practical insights and lessons learned from DHC operators and consultants, providing participants with hands-on experience from the field.