What is a
Heat Network?

Heat networks – also called district heating – are the future of heating our towns and cities. They are critical heat distribution infrastructures, made up of insulated underground pipes that supply heat from a shared central energy source to domestic and non-domestic buildings.

Being efficient, heat networks help tackle fuel poverty by reducing heat costs. As well as offering competitive pricing in comparison to traditional alternatives, heat networks avoid the need for costly individual boilers and the associated costs of maintaining and replacing them.

Unlike traditional gas boiler systems, heat is generated at centralised energy centres before being distributed to consumers. There is therefore no need for gas to be supplied
to individual properties and as such, none of the associated risks.

Inherently flexible, heat networks can take advantage of a wide array of different heat sources – including the recovery of low-carbon heat from resources that would otherwise be wasted – such as industry, energy-from-waste plants, or naturally-occurring sources such as geothermal or rivers.

As they are not tied to any specific source of heat, they can easily adapt to future changes in the energy market without locking in its consumers to one specific form of generation. They also can enable the use of local energy sources, which further improves energy resilience.