EBN’s Role – National Heat Investor
Heat networks will play a key role in making the Dutch heat supply more sustainable. Through the new public policy participation National Heat Investor (Nationale Deelneming Warmte – NDW), the Dutch State invests in public heat companies. NDW is currently part of EBN.
One of NDW’s key activities of the National Heat Investor is establishing public heat companies together with municipalities, provinces and network operators. Through these new public heat companies, district heating networks can then be developed in an affordable, reliable and future-proof manner. NDW is also the vehicle through which the Dutch government would like to procure the currently privately held district heating activities of Eneco, Ennatuurlijk and Vattenfall.
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Key Figures NDW
What are district heat networks?
Heat networks supply heat to homes and buildings through a collective network, often using sustainable sources such as geothermal energy, residual heat or aquathermal energy. They form an important alternative to natural gas, particularly in urban areas where individual solutions are less efficient.
The advantages of heat networks include:
- Efficient use of sustainable and local heat sources
- Reduced dependence on fossil fuels
- Suitable for large-scale decarbonisation of existing buildings
- Ability to provide public oversight over affordability and reliability
- Lower societal costs compared with relying solely on heat pumps
The Collective Heat Act (Wet collectieve warmte – Wcw) stipulates that collective heat companies and networks must be majority publicly owned. This creates opportunities for new publicly led heat companies in which public stakeholders such as the National Heat Investor, municipalities, provinces and network operators work together.
Why a National Heat Investor?
Developing district heating networks requires substantial investment and involves long payback periods. To accelerate this process, many new public heat companies are being established in the Netherlands. For municipalities and provinces, carrying these investments alone is often challenging. The National Heat Investor (NDW) acts as a public shareholder in heat companies. Established as part of the Collective Heat Act, NDW invests exclusively in public heat companies with a regional focus, or in initiatives with the potential to grow into regional organisations.
By involving NDW as a co-investor, shareholder and knowledge partner, municipalities retain their local leadership role in the heat transition while gaining a partner with implementation capacity. Collective heat networks also help strengthen local energy security. NDW is also closely involved in the potential transition of the Netherlands’ three largest heat companies into public ownership.
Under the Collective Heat Act, NDW is an independent public policy participation and is currently housed within EBN. NDW’s activities are separate from EBN’s geothermal energy activities. For geothermal energy, EBN operates under a separate mandate established by the Dutch Mining Act.
NDW Principles
The National Heat Investor (NDW) operates on the basis of the following principles:
- Affordable heat and sound business operations: NDW does not pursue short-term profits or high returns. It supports sustainable business operations in which public heat companies can generate long-term value while keeping costs for end users connected to district heating networks as low as possible. This approach is often referred to as patient capital.
- Attractive financing: NDW provides a substantial share of the equity financing required by the public heat companies in which it participates. NDW’s involvement also makes it easier to attract additional debt financing.
- Regional scale: NDW encourages a regional approach and generally participates at the level of regional heat companies. Local or municipal initiatives that have the potential to grow to this scale may also qualify for participation under certain conditions.
- Promoting standardisation: As a public shareholder in a portfolio of regional heat companies, NDW promotes the standardisation of technologies and processes. This helps ensure that scarce resources, such as labour and capital, are used as efficiently as possible in the heat transition.
- Facilitating knowledge sharing: NDW acts as a knowledge broker by gathering and sharing expertise across the heat sector. It shares insights with its shareholder, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, as well as policymakers and organisations such as the Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) and the National Programme for Local Heat Transition (NPLW).
- Accelerating the use of local heat sources: NDW also aims to accelerate the deployment of local, sustainable heat sources, such as geothermal energy. This helps reduce dependence on imported natural gas and supports both energy security and the energy transition.