Project meeting and workshop in Bucharest

During the meeting, the Project Partners and invited guests worked together to identify potential technology solutions and other measures, which would help Bucharest DHS meet the status of efficient DHS defined in the revised Energy Efficiency Directive.

The Bucharest District Heating System is the largest one targeted by the SET_HEAT project. The heating network has a total length of 3847 km, of which 884 km form the so-called primary transmission network, and the remaining 2963 km form the secondary distribution network. The network delivers heat to more than 500,000 individual house-holds, 3611 industrial and 1122 other consumers. The current peak demand for heat is around 2.0 GW and the annual amount of heat delivered to the grid is around 4500 GWh/year, of which 327 GWh/year is produced in TEB’s own plants. The main heat producer is ELCEN, which runs several large-scale cogeneration plants in the city.The SET_HEAT project activities focused on heat mapping and making inventories of existing infrastructure revealed almost no waste heat, and limited resources to harness renewable energy. During the three-day meeting, the SET_HEAT project consortium and guests investigated the current situation and prospects for the future of the Bucharest district heating system. With the priorities: 1) reliability and security of heat supply, 2) heat affordability, 3) heat greening, significant local resources must be engaged and large investments secured to carry out the system retrofitting and transition simultaneously. Although technically the change is doable, the identified solutions require setting up a dialog between local and European stakeholders to trigger strategic planning activities and select an optimal strategic transition pathway. The trade-off between cheap heat and green heat must be worked out. What has also been identified as the necessary prerequisites of a real transition are the change of mindset and optimism.