Heat agreement to make buildings in The Hague city centre more sustainable

Eneco and a number of major property players active in The Hague's city centre will sign a heat agreement today in the presence of Vivianne Heijnen, the Dutch Secretary of State for Infrastructure and Water Management. The property players in question all participate in the EnergieRijk Den Haag (ERDH) partnership. In the agreement, parties have agreed to improve the sustainability of the energy supply for 35 (semi)-government buildings in The Hague. For example, the parties have agreed to test whether the inlet temperature of the heat supply can be reduced, and research will be carried out into the possibilities of local heat and cold storage systems and the use of smart grids.

©Rijksvastgoedbedrijf, photo Bas Kijzers

Purpose of the agreement

With this agreement, Eneco together with the Central Government Real Estate Agency, the province of Zuid Holland, construction and property services company BAM, the Union of Water Boards, the national police force and Haaglanden Medical Centre are taking the next step towards making the main government buildings and semi-public buildings climate neutral by 2040. By signing the agreement, Eneco and the other signatories acknowledge that collaboration, knowledge sharing and specific measures are essential to align an efficient, sustainable heat system with the existing infrastructure.

The agreement is a perfect complement to Eneco’s One Planet Plan, which aims to make Eneco - and the energy it supplies to all customers - climate neutral by 2035. Making the heat supply more sustainable is a crucial element of that plan.

Temperature reduction test

The agreement identifies a number of important steps that Eneco and the property players are going to take together to support the transition pathways of the buildings:

• Tests to reduce the supplied heat's temperature 
• Research into the relationship between transition pathways for buildings and improvements in the sustainability of heat sources
• Research into the possibility of making peak capacity more sustainable
• Research into future-proof heat supply terms and conditions
• Creation of an information platform 

Eneco and ERDH have already carried out a test at The Hague City Hall, in which the inlet temperature of the supplied heat was successfully reduced. The initial results indicate that the users' workplaces remain comfortable, even when the temperature of the district heating network is being reduced. This resulted in lower energy consumption and fewer carbon emissions. The arrangements related to this test have been recorded in the heat agreement by the partners.

Eneco CEO As Tempelman explained:

“Accelerating the delivery of sustainable heat is one of the three pillars of our One Planet Plan. That plan contains a roadmap for supplying climate-neutral heat to customers by 2035. Hence, we are very happy that we and the ERDH partners will be able to put the heat transition into practice, using tailor-made solutions, at a large number of buildings in The Hague.”

The current heat agreement has a term of three years.