German city announces decommissioning of gas grid by 2035, encourages heat pump purchases
Clean Energy Wire
The transition to climate-friendly heating is slowly gathering pace in Germany with the country's first major city announcing a 2035 phase-out date for its gas grid. MVV, the local utility of the city of Mannheim in southern state Baden-Wurttemberg, said that it considers fossil gas-fired heating systems to be a “non-sustainable and not future-oriented form of heating” that will become more expensive in the coming years, especially since fewer users mean higher system maintenance costs per customer.
“MVV therefore aims to decommission its gas grid by 2035 and recommends its customers to start looking for alternative forms of heating early on,” the utility said.
The local energy supplier prepared the step since a first announcement in 2021, and now supplemented its plans with its so-called ‘Mannheim-model,’ by which its phaseout of fossil heating will be achieved by connecting thousands of homes to district heating, and offering energy consultancy services and financial support for households looking to install a heat pump or other decentralised sustainable heating systems. MVV said it wanted to “avoid bad decisions by customers when it comes to changing their heating systems.” Commercial customers connected to the gas grid will be consulted in separate meetings to discuss sustainable options that are not available to households, such as replacing natural gas with hydrogen.
The local utility said its plans build on the EU’s internal gas market regulation, which obliges gas grid operators to draw up decommissioning plans by 2026. Using natural gas for heating is likely to become increasingly expensive in the coming years both due to a dwindling user base and rising costs for CO2 emissions. The outgoing German government prepared a large-scale transition of the country’s heating sector in 2023, including a controversial heating law to prevent the installation of new oil- and gas-based heating systems. It also introduced a scheme that obliges cities and municipalities to analyse their potential for district heating and develop plans for implementing centralised decarbonisation solutions for their heating systems.
Other German cities and regions are also pushing ahead with plans to replace fossil fuels in their heating systems. Already in April this year, the city of Augsburg in southern state Bavaria had announced plans for ending the use of natural gas in its heating system and informed customers of its intention to cut off the gas grid within the next years.
