EU Tracker – Local heating and cooling plans in France
Summary
What is the status of the transposition of Art 25.6(EDD) and its implementation ?
The voluntary development of energy master plans by local authorities can be a good basis to transpose the new obligation, but additional technical and financial support are needed to develop ambitious heating and cooling plans.
Mandatory climate, air and territorial plans of intercommunalities insufficiently address heating and cooling. This is partially due to a lack of holistic plan of heating and cooling decarbonisation at national level before 2022 and the surge of gas prices. The focus was mostly on the elimination of fuel boilers in housing, and the development of district heating and cooling, however the phase out of natural gas was not a priority. Several French intercommunalities, mostly the biggest and medium-sized ones, have developed energy masterplans on a voluntary basis to complement their territorial climate, air, and energy plans and integrate a spatial dimension. Overall local authorities lack human resources and financial means to develop detailed heating and cooling plans. However, they benefit from a comprehensive framework to access qualitative and numerous datasets.
Detailed assessment
The legal framework and the obligations
Heat planning is voluntary, although there are some elements of heat planning in the mandatory energy and climate action plans of intercommunalities.
Overview of the legal frameworks per governance level
| National | Since 2015 and the Energy Transition Law for Green Growth, all intercommunalities (gathering of municipalities) of more than 20,000 inhabitants have the obligation to develop Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs), which include decarbonisation of the heating and cooling needs. In addition, municipalities who own a public district heating and cooling network have the obligation to produce a masterplan every 10 years to study its decarbonisation and expansion. The energy law sets specific objectives at national level in terms of consumption of renewable heat (38% of the final heat consumption in 2030), and decrease of energy consumption. It also aims at multiplying by 5 the delivery of heat and cold via district energy networks by 2030 (compared to 2012). |
| Regional | The Regional Plans for planning, sustainable development and equality of territories are very broad plans integrating spatial planning, mobility, energy and climate policies at regional level. It defines objectives in terms of energy efficiency, renewable energy production, climate adaptation and reduction of air pollution, as well as actions’ plans. Regions are specifically in charge of coordinating studies, sharing information and promoting energy efficiency actions in collaboration with local authorities. However, the heat decarbonisation is only one small component of the plans as there is no obligation of heat planning for municipalities. In addition, regional authorities specifically develop biomass plans to mobilise this resource on their territories, these plans often support the development of biomass-fired district heating and cooling networks. |
| Local | Mandatory Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) of intercommunalities of more than 20,000 inhabitants should be revised every 6 years and address the development of renewable energies, the recovery of waste heat, the distribution of renewable and waste heat via district heating networks, the reduction of energy demand, and the coordinated evolution of energy networks. However, these plans do not necessarily include a spatial planning dimension, and detailed investment plans. They often lack detailed mapping and scenarios of heating and cooling demand and supply. Some French local authorities have on a voluntary basis performed heat planning, often in the broader framework of an energy masterplan, to better articulate urban and energy planning. |
The support framework
A lack of dedicated financial and technical support framework about strategic heating and cooling planning, despite an existing support for energy and climate local policies
Despite a relatively good support framework for energy and climate local policies, there is no dedicated national programme to phase out fossil fuels in the heating sector and to support consistent strategic heating and cooling planning at local level. Support mechanisms are scattered among different sectors, technologies, and target groups. Overall, local authorities lack financial and human resources to reach ambitious climate targets. However, they benefit from a facilitated access to a large quantity of datasets.
Provided Support
| Technical and organisational | 3/5 | The National Agency for the Ecological Transition provides technical and methodological support for energy and territorial planning, with references and guidelines, such as the programme “Territory engaged in the Ecological transition” . Consultancy support is also offered for the development of SECAP, district heating master plan, or energy masterplan, funded by the Agency. The Agency, as well as the Regions, proposes different exchange groups and trainings. However, there are no catalogue of costs of technologies, recommended methodologies for doing techno-economic assessments of scenarios, neither national approved and recommended heat planning tool to develop energy spatialised scenarios. Local authorities can also get technical support from other organisations, like national associations of municipalities (such as AMORCE and FNCCR) or the national expertise centre CEREMA. |
| Financial | 3/5 | Apart from the financial support for external expertise mentioned above, there are several calls for applications on specific issues, linked with heat planning. For instance, the Heat Fund can finance part of the feasibility studies (and the development) of district heating and cooling networks. The management of the Heat Fund can even be delegated to local authorities to boost district heating and cooling development locally via Renewal Heat Contract of 3 years with the National Agency for the Ecological Transition. |
| Staff & skills | 3/5 | There is no dedicated support to finance staff of local authorities for heat or energy planning. However, there is a financial scheme (Contract for Territorial Objective) provided by the National Agency for the Ecological Transition, which provides support to local authorities to hire employees to improve the development and implementation of SECAP and circular economy policies. However, this scheme funds staff for a short period (usually 3 years). Local authorities often have dedicated staff to develop SECAP, and for some of them to manage concessions of energy networks (heat, gas, electricity). However local authorities lack specific human resources and competencies regarding heat planning and energy modelling. Specialised consultancy companies are often hired to develop energy masterplan and district heating and cooling masterplan. A study published in 2023 estimates that there is a need of around 500 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) employees to plan and drive the development of district heating and cooling networks, and around 3,000 FTE employees to elaborate, animate, implement and monitor local energy and climate policies. Energy Cities estimates that around 16,000 FTE employees are missing in local authorities to achieve the decarbonisation goals in the building sector by 2030 in France. |
| Access to data | 4/5 | French local authorities benefit from a facilitated access to energy data, especially regarding electricity, gas, heating and cooling, and fuels consumption. Since 2018, data are available at the street level (aggregated data from at least 10 supply points in the residential sector). This is possible thanks to the article 179 from the Energy Transition Law for the Green Growth from 2015 which makes compulsory for grid operators and fuel suppliers to share their data publicly. Gas and power grid operators have developed an open data platform, including data from energy infrastructure localisation. However, data regarding remaining grid capacities are often lacking at a detailed level. As local authorities often lack capacities to treat these data, Regions and the National Agency for the Ecological Transition fund regional observatories that produce inventories of GHG emissions, air pollutant emissions, and energy production and consumption. Several data portals gather data for which the potential of production for different renewable energy sources can be assessed. In 2023, two new data visualisation portals are under development aiming at supporting local decision makers, one for the development of renewable energies, and another one specifically for the development of district heating and cooling networks. Data on energy performance certificates of buildings are also publicly available but are incomplete. France has a comparatively well-developed framework for energy data collection and management, accessible to local authorities. |
