Supporting the delivery of actionable, integrated, and comprehensive local heating and cooling plans

About the call

Heating and cooling account for half of the EU's final energy consumption, and around 70% of this is still supplied by imported fossil fuels, mainly natural gas. Many households continue to burn solid fuels, harming air quality, while demand for cooling is rising due to heatwaves and the growth of data centres. The Energy Efficiency Directive (EED, 2023/1791, Article 25.6) requires municipalities with a population above 45,000 to prepare local heating and cooling plans (LHCPs).

Objectives

To support local and regional authorities in developing and delivering actionable, integrated LHCPs as effective planning and clean energy investment tools at local and regional level.

Key requirement

By the end of the project, the target municipalities or regions must have LHCPs actually adopted - not concepts, not guidance documents, but the plans themselves. They must be developed through highly participatory processes and aligned with EU and Member State requirements.

What is funded

• Developing technical skills for preparing, financing, implementing and monitoring LHCPs.
• Collecting detailed geospatial, technical, climate and socioeconomic data, taking into account changing climate conditions and more frequent heatwaves.
• Developing comprehensive energy demand and supply forecasts and identifying spatially adapted decarbonisation measures - for example, the potential for district heating networks in urban and industrial areas.
• Identifying and assessing sources of renewable and waste heat.
• Identifying and assessing financing options for LHCP measures, taking into account energy costs for end consumers and the needs of energy-poor households.
• Participatory processes: simplifying permitting procedures, removing regulatory barriers, and engaging infrastructure operators, communities, energy cooperatives, businesses and DSOs.
• Coordinating LHCPs with electricity and heat network development plans, and, where relevant, with gas network decommissioning plans.
• Structured dialogue with regional and national authorities, including to inform NECPs and national comprehensive assessments of heating and cooling.

Outside the scope of the call

Projects whose main purpose is the development of new digital tools. Projects focused solely on investment plans for district heating/cooling systems.

Conditions

• The project must cover several municipalities in each target region and country, including those with fewer than 45,000 inhabitants.
• Political commitment from the target municipalities must be demonstrated - through participation in the consortium or through targeted letters of support.
• Indicative grant amount: up to €2 million.

Deadline

16 September 2026, 17:00 CEST