China's urban heating supply begins three-year transformation

China News Service, Beijing, October 16 (Reporter Pang Wuji) China will take three years to transform and upgrade urban heating systems.

The "Three-Year Action Plan for Urban Heating "Warmth Project" (2026-2028)" jointly issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the National Development and Reform Commission and other six departments was released on the 16th, which clarified that by the end of 2028, significant progress will be made in the task of updating and upgrading the existing heating pipe network, and the heating support capacity and service level will be comprehensively improved.

By the end of 2025, the urban centralized heating area in northern China's heating regions will be 14.75 billion square meters, including 11.29 billion square meters of residential buildings.

The program covers 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Focusing on five aspects, including accelerating the construction and renovation of heating pipe networks, comprehensively improving heat source support capabilities, improving the refined management level of the heating system, focusing on improving the quality of heating services, and improving the long-term guarantee mechanism for heat supply, the plan has identified 19 key tasks.

Among them, the plan emphasizes accelerating the construction and renovation of heating pipe networks, including heating pipe networks, heat stations and related supporting facilities that have been in operation for 20 years or more or have outstanding risks and hidden dangers, and include them in the renovation plan to accelerate the start of project construction. Analysts say this move will reduce risks such as pipe leakage and pipe bursts. At the same time, the interconnection of main heating pipe networks should be promoted based on the distribution of heat sources to improve the ability to support mutual support of heat sources. Once an individual heat source fails, other heat sources can be dispatched to provide protection.

In terms of heat source protection, the plan mentions that it will promote the construction, commissioning, transformation and upgrading of thermal power units. In terms of boiler heating, we will speed up the renovation of old heating boilers and supporting equipment, promote the recovery and utilization of boiler flue gas waste heat in an orderly manner, and improve the comprehensive thermal efficiency of heating boilers. In terms of other heat sources, the application of industrial waste heat and non-fossil energy heating such as geothermal energy and nuclear energy will be strengthened, and heat storage facilities will be constructed in a rational layout.

Xu Wei, chief expert of the China Academy of Building Sciences and national engineering survey and design master, pointed out that the overall idea of ​​the plan is to strengthen multi-source coupling in terms of heat source protection. In the future, we must continue to increase the proportion of new energy applications, so that traditional energy and new energy can be better combined, while improving heating security capabilities and promoting energy conservation and emission reduction.