City council plans reorganisation of heat supply
In order to achieve the net zero target, the city of Zurich will connect around 60 per cent of the settlement area with district heating by 2040. At the same time, the city council wants to increase supply security and exploit synergies in the heat supply. It has therefore decided to reorganise the heat supply on city territory. In the new structure, the electricity company ewz will operate the large municipal heating networks.
So far, there are three municipal providers of heating networks on city territory: Elektrizitätswerk ewz, Entsorgung + Recycling Zürich (ERZ) and Energie 360° AG. All large-scale heating networks are now to be united under the umbrella of ewz. Through their joint efforts to achieve the city’s net zero targets, the three providers of district heating networks have intensified their cooperation in recent years. Then, about two years ago, the city council formalised this cooperation by establishing the Wärme Zürich office. Since then, Wärme Zürich has been coordinating the expansion of the networks of the three providers. Currently, it is being examined whether the existing heating networks can also be physically connected to each other, so that an overall network is gradually created on city territory, which further increases the security of supply. The planned reorganisation takes these changes into account and represents the next integration stage in the area of heat supply.
Implementation plan in progress
A project headed by City Council members Michael Baumer (Head of the Department of Industrial Operations), Simone Brander (Head of the Department of Civil Engineering and Waste Disposal) and Andreas Hauri (Head of the Department of Health and Environment) will show in an implementation plan by the end of the year how and in what timeframe such a reorganisation can take place. The consultation with the staff associations will also take place during this period.
Integration of ERZ’s district heating activities
ERZ’s district heating activities will be integrated into ewz. The implementation plan will show how the integration of the district heating activities is to be structured and how and when the employees concerned are to transfer from ERZ to ewz. The experts from ERZ will play a decisive role in shaping the new organisation with their knowledge and many years of experience in the heating sector.
New prospects for Energie 360°
Energie 360° will also transfer part of its heating networks in the city of Zurich to ewz, with the employees remaining with Energie 360°. Ownership and operation of the gas grid and all other activities will remain with Energie 360°. Energie 360° is a joint-stock company owned by the public sector. The main owner is the city of Zurich. The company’s strategy of driving forward the transformation throughout Switzerland and supplying exclusively renewable energy by 2040 will be maintained. As the focus of Energie 360°’s activities will shift even more to activities outside the city in the future, the city council wants to offer the company new perspectives and open up the field for cooperation. In order to gain more freedom of action, the city council’s authority to sell shares in this company is to be extended.