The Municipality of Utrecht wants to carry out the heat transition quickly and affordably. Therefore, Utrecht focuses on connecting households to heat networks. At the request of the council, the Municipality of Utrecht now presents a proposal to join as a shareholder of the energy and waste company HVC. The Executive Board offers the municipal council the opportunity to express wishes and concerns about this (preliminary procedure). The municipality describes exactly how this works in the council letter sent to the municipal council today.
With this proposal, Utrecht takes a serious step in further making the city more sustainable and less energy-dependent. The proposal is that HVC becomes the public heat company with which we will build collective heat networks. In addition to heat supply, part of the waste processing (residual waste and organic waste) will also come into public hands. Waste collection remains a task of the Municipality of Utrecht itself. The council set conditions regarding affordability and sustainability. These conditions have been investigated and elaborated in additional agreements with HVC in recent months.
HVC is a public party with a lot of experience that can provide the necessary technical support, but also does this in a cost-effective way. With this public energy company, the Municipality of Utrecht will be able to realize the energy transition in the city together, without commercial interests standing in the way. Utrecht wants to be less dependent on market parties in the heat transition and put the interests of residents first: clean, reliable and affordable heat. HVC can connect both new construction projects and help neighborhoods with existing buildings to become more sustainable. Research has shown that the costs of waste processing at HVC are more stable and comparable in amount to those of market parties.
The urgency to start quickly with HVC lies in a number of large collective heat systems for new construction projects that the municipality prefers to be in public hands rather than realized by market parties. The Municipality of Utrecht sees HVC as a partner who can step in on these projects in the short term with expertise and capacity to prevent long delays for essential housing construction. The Municipality of Utrecht also sees a role for HVC in accelerating energy generation projects and in forms of system integration that help the municipality solve problems with a full electricity grid. In this way, the Municipality of Utrecht can take a serious step towards an energy system of the future with HVC.
With the proposed participation in HVC, Utrecht gives substance to the Heat Policy Note in which the municipality chooses public ownership in the heat transition. Utrecht is preparing for the Collective Heat Act, which was passed by the Senate this week. This law regulates public ownership of heat networks, the affordability of heat and the transition to sustainable heat sources. The law is an important step for the progress of the heat transition.
Help and contact Municipality of Utrecht
Visiting address
Stadsplateau 1
3521 AZ Utrecht
Postal address
Postbus 16200
3500 CE Utrecht