Kurz-ENP as a Preliminary Analysis for Intermunicipal Heat Planning

Recently, the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development, and Energy has started funding a new project format designed to help municipalities form meaningful alliances for municipal heat planning (KWP). Under the title “Vorabanalyse zur interkommunalen Wärmeplanung (Kurz-ENP)” which roughly translates to “Preliminary Analysis for Intermunicipal Heat Planning”, municipalities can conduct a short project to determine where it would be sensible to join an intermunicipal planning convoy and carry out the KWP together. Two perspectives are crucial: first, considering heat potentials that can be utilized more efficiently when shared across municipal boundaries, and second, examining potential administrative synergies between municipalities that could enhance the execution of the KWP. The preparation of a Kurz-ENP is limited to a maximum of 3 months and is explicitly intended as a precursor to the KWP without preempting the contents of the KWP. The creation of Kurz-ENPs is funded up to 80%.

The basis for the collaboration of multiple municipalities in a joint KWP is § 4 of the German Heat Planning Act (“Wärmeplanungsgesetz” - WPG). It states that according to state guidelines, “…a joint heat planning can be conducted for multiple municipal areas.” These so-called planning convoys enable several municipalities to go through the heat planning process together and produce a joint heat plan. This can be beneficial when adjacent municipalities can better utilize heat potentials and administrative synergies.

To support municipalities in creating a Kurz-ENP, the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development, and Energy offers extensive funding. Projects are generally funded with a cap on eligible total costs of up to 25,000 EUR (net). Eligible total costs include personnel costs for preparing the study as well as additional costs for, e.g., presentation of results and travel expenses, as long as they are specifically itemized in the offer. If a Kurz-ENP is prepared at the county level, a flat funding rate of 80% applies. In all other cases, where municipalities join forces for a Kurz-ENP, the funding rate is limited as follows:

• For eligible total costs up to 10,000 EUR net, the funding rate is also 80%.
• For eligible total costs between 10,000 EUR and 15,000 EUR net, the funding rate is 70%.
• For eligible total costs over 15,000 EUR net, the funding rate is 60%.

For a project with eligible total costs of, for example, 12,000 EUR, the costs to cover for the municipalities from their own budget would be 2,400 EUR if municipalities join at the county level (funding rate 80%). If it is a group of municipalities not covering the entire county, the funding rate in this example would reduce to 70% and the effective costs for the municipalities would increase to 3,600 EUR.

For municipalities interested in conducting a Kurz-ENP to prepare for municipal heat planning, the ENPOnline portal offers assistance for the tendering process. It also describes the methodology to be applied, the expected results, the data basis, and the documents to be submitted. Regarding methodology and data basis, the focus is strongly on publicly available data and rough estimates to enable project completion within the specified 3-month period and to not preempt the contents of the KWP. It is also important that the recommended planning convoy should ultimately not exceed a total of 10 to a maximum of 12 municipalities.

If you are interested in preparing a Kurz-ENP, please feel free to contact us. We are happy to support you from the application phase to the successful preparation of a preliminary analysis for intermunicipal heat planning (Kurz-ENP).