EU Tracker – Local heating and cooling plans in Italy
Summary
What is the status of the transposition of Art 25.6(EDD) and its implementation ?
The transposition will require regulatory change, enhanced coordination and the development of comprehensive support structures across Italy.
Italian municipalities with a population above 50 000 inhabitants are obliged to draft municipal energy plans. These plans have a strict focus on supply and do not sufficiently address spatial and strategic dimensions of heating and cooling. The obligation may nevertheless work as a useful legislative base for the transposition of EED article 25.6. The technical, organisational and financial support frameworks vary across regions but are generally weak and insufficiently targeted towards strategic energy planning. Italian municipalities are also constrained by a lack of staffing resources and data to carry out local heating and cooling plans. Italy had the highest estimated number of heat-attributable deaths in Europe in 2022, which points to an urgent need to integrate cooling aspects in strategic local energy and spatial planning practices.
Detailed assessment
The legal framework and the obligations
Italy has a legal framework in place for local energy planning, but local plans do not cover heating and cooling in a strategic, detailed and sufficiently integrated way
Overview of the legal frameworks per governance level
| National | Italy’s main climate and energy objectives are defined in its 2019 National Plan Integrated for Energy and Climate (NECP), and its 2023 draft for an updated NECP. The NECP sets a renewable energy share target for the heating and cooling sector at 33.9 % by 2030, with an indicative target set by 37 % in the draft plan. The draft plan makes no references to local heating and cooling planning or local strategic energy planning in general. |
| Regional | In 1991, the Italian Regions became responsible for formulating Regional Energy Plans (‘Piani Energetici Regionali’). Since 2001, these policies have been integrated in the Regional Energy and Environmental Plans (‘Piani Energetici ed Ambientali Regionali’, PEAR). |
| Local | Article 5 and 6 of the Energy Efficiency Law (Law n. 10/1991) requires municipalities with a population of over 50 000 inhabitants to establish municipal energy plans which concern the use of renewable energy sources. These plans are part of their spatial planning and may include area-specific provisions for district heating. Municipal energy plans must identify the areas that are suitable for the construction of district heating systems and networks and establish certain criteria for the connection of public and private properties to these networks. The renewable energy law (Decree (n. 28/2011) provides stronger legal instruments for municipalities to facilitate the integration of renewable energy in district heating and cooling networks. Article 22 of the same decree obliges municipalities to coordinate their municipal energy plans with the provinces and to ensure alignment with the Regional Energy Plan. Despite these obligations, few cities include a heating and cooling component in their local planning. |
The support framework
Very limited support for drafting local heating and cooling plans
The quality and extent of support mechanisms and programs provided to local authorities to conduct energy planning has large variations across Italian regions. Some regions provide technical guidance and support for energy planning, but there is currently no dedicated support in place for local heating and cooling planning in Italy. Overall, Italian municipalities lack the know-how, skills, and technical and financial resources to carry out such plans.
Provided Support
| Technical and organisational | 1/5 | There is no technical support provided to municipalities to develop their development of district heating plans and nor any heating and cooling plans. Some regions (Piemonte and Emilia Romania) are developing guidance on the development of local energy plans that may encompass heating and cooling dimensions. |
| Financial | 2/5 | Financial aid could come first and foremost from the regions which redistribute national and regional funds via calls for projects and specific programs. Participation in European projects has hence become an important source of funding for heating and cooling related projects. While funds to support municipalities on other dimensions of the energy transition have been established nationally, no fund or program dedicated to heating and cooling planning so far exists. Available funding instruments could if redistributed support Italian municipalities to prepare local heating and cooling plans. The national resilience and recovery plan dedicates 200 million euros to local cogeneration projects, while the Growth Decree (law 28 June 2019, n. 58, art. 30 ) provides grants to Italian Municipalities for the implementation of projects relating to energy efficiency interventions and sustainable territorial development, which may cover costs for the development of heating and cooling plans |
| Staff & skills | 2/5 | The Law 10 of 1991 introduced the obligation for Municipalities with energy consumption exceeding 1,000 tons of oil equivalent (typically these are municipalities with a population exceeding 40,000 inhabitants) to appoint one staff member responsible for the conservation and rational use of energy. Nevertheless, there is very poor knowledge about energy planning within local administrations, and in particular related to the heating and cooling sector. The shortage of skills and human resources is most apparent in small municipalities, but also in medium-size municipalities. A 2022 study estimated that an addition of nearly 38 000 full time equivalents would be necessary in Italian Municipalities to achieve buildings decarbonisation targets for 2030. |
| Access to data | 2/5 | The quality and type of data municipalities can access varies across Italian regions. Energy supply data are usually available as utilities are obliged to share their data, however often not in a harmonised format which brings additional costs for usage. The region of Emilia Romania provides a map of heating and cooling demand as well as district heating development potentials, however not at a sufficiently detailed scale. Large efforts remain overall in Italy to ensure that local governments can access sufficiently granular and comprehensive needed for the drafting of heating and cooling assessments and plans. |
