Communal energy planning

An energy planning is targeted at coordinating the energy supply in a municipality or a region and adapting it to the structural development of the municipalities. The aim is to use local renewable energies as optimally as possible and to increase local added value and efficiency, in order to gain more autonomy and become independent of fossil fuels. With a communal energy plan the municipality coordinates its future energy supply at the planning level. This way, heat supply areas and locations for energy production plants are ensured at the spatial planning level. The contents of the energy plan are binding for the authorities and can become binding for private landowners in a special use planning (“Gestaltungsplan”).

Wood as an energy source plays an important role in the municipality of Marthalen and is used in two existing district heating networks. A large area in the community is forested, and therefore the potential for using wood as an energy source is accordingly high. Among other things, communal energy planning ensures the efficient, economical and ecologically sensible expansion of the district heating networks, for example to replace oil-fired heating systems in heritage-listed buildings.

Based on the current situation and the local potentials, objectives for the energy planning were defined. Taking the expected development, the efficiency potential and existing and potential energy sources into account, intep developed a map with areas in which the usage of a particular energy source has priority or is suitable. Short-, medium- and long-term measures related to the defined areas were elaborated by intep for the duration of the planning horizon of the energy planning, and the corresponding monitoring was listed.