ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the development of district heating in European cities looking at interactions between policies and practices in four countries. The development of district heating in Denmark and Sweden depended on municipal authorities to effect the coordination, relying on newly instituted heat planning processes in Denmark, and existing municipal integrated service planning in Sweden. Liberalisation of energy markets and the broader shift away from local government direct provision of services change the capacities of local authorities to coordinate the development of new heat network infrastructure. The Heat Supply Act thus created significant powers for local authorities to create monopoly heat supply systems. Heat network development began in a handful of cities after the Second World War, and tended to be based around existing oil-fired power stations, retrofitted to operate in combined heat and power (CHP) mode. Heating in Norway is predominantly dependent on electricity, with over fifty per cent of demand served by either resistive heating or heat pumps.
