District heating, strong concentration in northern Italy

The growth trend of district heating and cooling is confirmed, in terms of volumes connected and extension of the networks. The diffusion of the service remains mainly concentrated in northern and central Italy: Lombardy, Piedmont, Trentino-Alto Adige, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto alone represent more than 95% of the thermal energy supplied. This is what emerges from the Annual Report of Arera, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment, with 2020 data for electricity, gas, water, waste. Natural gas is confirmed as the clearly prevailing energy source for the operation of telecalore plants, accounting for 69.4% of total energy consumption, slightly down on the previous year. A significant contribution is also provided by residual urban waste (Rur), equal to 15.1% of the energy sources used, and by bioenergy (biomass, biogas and bioliquids) which, coming to represent 9.9% of the total, drive the growth of renewable sources. With reference to generation technologies, a clear prevalence of electricity and heat cogeneration plants is confirmed, which produced 67.6% of the thermal energy fed into the networks. registered in the Authority’s Registries is equal to 259. Of these, 84% deals, usually in an integrated form, with activities strictly related to the operation of the networks and the supply of thermal energy to users (distribution or measurement or sale) while the remaining portion deals only with the production of thermal energy. The energy distributed by the telecheat networks is mainly used for environmental air conditioning (heating and cooling) and the production of hot water for sanitary use, while its use in industrial processes is marginal. A significant share of the market is in fact made up of residential and tertiary users (respectively 64% and 33.8% of the total), while the demand from the industrial sector remains marginal (2.8%). applied, the analysis carried out resulted in between approximately 68 and 106 € / MWh, with an average value of 89 € / MWh for residential users; for users in the tertiary sector, between approximately 66 and 105 € / MWh, with an average value of 85 € / MWh, while for industrial users, between approximately 62 and 105 € / MWh, with an average value of 80 € / MWh