Data for heat planning

In this interview, Norbert Stankus, Director Energy & E-Mobility at Nexiga GmbH, talks about the role of external service providers in municipal heat planning.

Although local authorities already have a lot of data, it is often fragmented, incomplete or in incompatible formats. This is why they are sometimes supported externally with tools and high-quality data sets in the necessary processes. For example, building data such as year of construction, living space or heating age is used to create digital twins of the municipalities that replicate physical reality and simulate scenarios.

Successful collaboration requires municipalities to be willing to provide data, be able to cooperate and have clear goals. Guidelines such as the Heat Planning Act (WPG) provide orientation, but each municipality has its own individual challenges, for example with regard to the condition of the infrastructure or missing data. Building-specific information and regular updates are essential for precise heat planning. Heat planning should be dynamic in order to be able to react to new technologies, legal changes or demographic developments.