The traffic light coalition has been arguing about the heat transition for months – now there could be new discussions on this topic. On Friday, the Federal Building Ministry sent the revised version of the draft law on municipal heating planning to the federal states and associations. The content should cause big eyes, especially among representatives of the smaller municipalities: Because, according to the paper, the traffic light wants to push the deadlines for the development of heat planning significantly forward.
According to the new draft, all of the almost 11,000 municipalities in Germany are to submit a heat plan. The original version actually only intended this for communities with more than 10,000 inhabitants, but Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) recently announced in the Bundestag that planning would also be made mandatory for the smallest villages.
Communities large and small need to step up
In any case, large and small communities must keep up: Because the new draft provides for shorter deadlines. Large cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants must complete their heat planning by June 30, 2026 at the latest, while smaller municipalities have until June 30, 2028. That’s six months earlier than was planned in the first draft of the law.
However, the mandatory heat planning is not synonymous with actually offering a municipal solution such as a district heating connection. The heat planning of a municipality can also consist of the decision that the heat supply is organized decentrally – that is, the residents have to take care of the supply of their houses themselves, for example with the help of a heat pump.
In any case, the new plans have financial consequences. Because instead of the originally planned 1,602 municipalities – those with at least 10,000 inhabitants – very small towns now also have to develop municipal heat planning, the sum that the federal government has to provide for planning support is increasing. There are a total of 9,187 municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants in Germany, and they are all now entitled to federal aid.
“Private households are not bothered”
Instead of the originally estimated 250 million euros, a sum of just under one billion euros is now expected, says Parliamentary State Secretary Sören Bartol (SPD) of the SZ. “But that extends over a period of four years,” says Bartol. According to the draft, a simplified planning procedure is also possible for smaller communities. And: According to the draft, heating plans that have already been drawn up in some federal states on the basis of state law are to be protected. Also new is the possibility of identifying certain areas in the heat plan as probable hydrogen network areas.
The draft law also states that no additional data will be collected or requested from consumers for heat planning. “Private households are not bothered,” said Bartol. You should only work with existing data, and this should also be summarized in such a way that no conclusions can be drawn about the heating behavior of individual houses.
The Federal Building Ministry is also planning a new hearing of the federal states and associations on the new draft – it is to be expected that they will at least question the timetable. At the beginning of July, the Association of Towns and Municipalities spoke out in favor of extending the deadlines for heat planning in small municipalities to 2030. The fact that it is now supposed to go even faster than announced could catch the community representatives off guard.
Fines have been removed
However, the ministry clearly made an effort to accommodate the municipalities. For example, the fines have been abolished: Municipalities that do not submit a heating plan no longer have to expect financial consequences as things stand.
There is also an interesting sentence in the letter that the Federal Ministry of Building addresses to the federal states and associations: It is expressly pointed out that “the draft law has not yet been agreed within the Federal Government, so that further changes can be expected”. After all the argument that the traffic light has caused around the heat transition, this is remarkable – especially since municipal heat planning is closely interlinked with the Building Energy Act, for which Geywitz’ Haus is responsible together with Robert Habeck’s (Greens) Ministry of Economic Affairs. In addition, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) has to agree that a multiple of the initially agreed amount is now due for the financial support of the municipalities in the creation of a heating plan. In any case, the federal government wants to pass the law on August 16 in the cabinet.