Encourage deployment of smart heating networks

Other emerging low-carbon heating solutions, such as smart networks and thermal energy storage, will also play an important role in the buildings sector’s path to net zero. Heat networks use underground pipes to transport hot water to a network of buildings by transferring heat generated from a centralized generation site to consumers. As a result, individual flats and buildings do not need to generate their own heat via on-site heat pumps or boilers.

To help decarbonize buildings especially in urban areas, policymakers can encourage the deployment of smart heating networks, which rely on renewables or sustainable fuels, and operate by optimizing energy consumption patterns and automatically distributing the heat supply. Smart heat networks can improve system flexibility through demand-side response to reduce the peak consumption load in subtle ways that do not disturb consumers, such as reducing the heat slightly while the hot water is being used. This has the potential to reduce both emissions and the cost of heating, thanks to the efficiency of a central heating source. (See Pillar 3: Buildings for more on heat networks.)