Guidelines on community-led heating and cooling

The Package Approach: One for All!

The package approach is focused on getting people involved with as few contact points as necessary at first, to create a service to connect people with as little hassle as possible. First, there is a marketing period where a specific area is targeted. Which area is next is determined in advance in a district heating and cooling expansion plan. In order to begin the plan, a project proposal must be prepared and sent to the municipality for approval. It must include socio-economic, user-economic, and environmental analyses of different locally-available renewable heating sources.

Consequently for a period of 2-4 months the cooperative goes into the area, starting off with newspaper articles and information nights. People can sign up to participate on the website of the cooperative. The marketing in this stage usually has three main arguments: Comfort, price, and sustainability. There is a specific deadline for people to sign up. When 30% of the district households sign up, the project goes ahead. When the customer agrees on the details, he or she signs a contract with the cooperative and/or energy community. Everybody that signs up then received a visit from the account manager of the cooperative. This person explains in full transparency all the details on how, when, and where the Community-led Heating and Cooling (CH&C) installations will begin. This account manager communicates with the cooperative, the builders, and construction workers, the customer only needs to be home when they start the installation.

While the package approach is more efficient, it lacks the community-building aspect of the neighbourhood approach.