New Heating Bill approved by Government to include price protection for network consumers

The Government has approved the General Scheme of the Heat (Networks and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024.

The development of this legislation will pave the way for the growth of a district heating industry in Ireland that would be highly efficient and low carbon, helping to meet national and international climate targets.

Importantly, it would also establish a regulatory model which ensures price protection for large and small heat network consumers.

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District heating utilises a centralised heat source to heat multiple buildings across a wide geographical area. This allows for several types of heat sources to be used to heat up to thousands of buildings across an entire village, town or city.

Heat sources could be waste facilities like that in Dublin’s Poolbeg, or they could be large energy users like data centres or pharmaceutical companies that have access heat. If the heat source is low-carbon, it means that an entire district can be decarbonised almost instantly.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland’s 2022 National Heat Study found that district heating has the potential to supply over 50% of heat nationally and, crucially, it identifies the potential to use this technology in large towns and cities across Ireland where demand is highest, and heat sources are prevalent.

Similarly, Codema (Dublin’s Energy Agency) identified that, collectively, there are enough waste heat and renewable sources in Dublin to heat over 1 million homes and that approximately 80% of heat demand in Dublin could be met by district heating by 2050.

Minister Ryan opened Ireland’s first district heating network in Tallaght, Co. Dublin, in April of last year. 

This uses waste heat from the Amazon Data Centre, which is now providing low-carbon heat to South Dublin County Council public buildings and Technological University Dublin, with further plans to provide heat to 133 affordable apartments next year and up to another 3500 homes over the next three to five years.

There are also plans in place to use waste heat from the Poolbeg incinerator to heat approximately 50,000 buildings in the surrounding area.

Although District Heating is a well-established technology with approximately 70 million district heating customers across the EU, it is new to Ireland with only one district heating network developed by South Dublin County Council in Tallaght.

Minister Ryan said:

“By approving the General Scheme of this Bill, the Government is recognising that district heating has the potential to make a lasting contribution to Ireland’s heat needs and climate goals.

“I launched the first District Heating scheme in Tallaght last year and already, the pipes for district heating are going into the new housing development at the Glass Bottle site. We will have district heating there in 2026 and can continue then all the way up the Liffey to heat Dublin City Centre.

"I am also pleased that my Department is engaging with the process of the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund to prioritise funding for the development of national district heating infrastructure."

Ireland has very ambitious targets within the Climate Action Plan, to comply with EU directives and our sectoral emissions ceilings, to deliver district heating of up to 2.7 TWh by 2030. That will require a very significant and immediate scale up and acceleration of projects.

The introduction of legislative and regulatory frameworks for the district heating sector by way of this General Scheme will be crucial in providing policy and regulatory certainty to potential project sponsors and investors in district heating in Ireland.