Six departments: Launch the three-year action of urban heating "warmth project"

Reporters learned from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development today (16th) that in order to speed up the solution to problems such as insufficient heat source support capabilities and facility and equipment failures in urban heating work, six departments including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued a notice to launch a three-year urban heating "warmth project" action, requiring that by the end of 2028, significant progress should be made in the renewal and renovation of the existing aging pipe network.

Due to the gradual aging of facilities and equipment such as heating pipe networks and heating stations constructed in the early stage, coupled with the impact of extreme weather and other effects, some areas have experienced problems such as insufficient heat source support and malfunctions of facilities and equipment. The six departments launched the three-year urban heating "warmth project" action this time, and identified 19 key tasks from 5 aspects. It is expected that through three years of continuous promotion, the heating supply capacity and service level will be comprehensively improved to better ensure that the people have a warm winter.

According to the plan, all localities will "adhere to physical examination first, then update", conduct regular physical examinations and assessments of heating facilities and equipment, and include heating pipe networks, heating stations and related supporting facilities that have been in operation for 20 years or more or have outstanding risks and hidden dangers into the transformation plan, and encourage the optimization and transformation of thermal stations with a heating area of ​​more than 50,000 square meters for a single heating system. In view of the fact that a lot of urban heating is provided by heat sources from thermal power plants, the next step will be to promote the construction, commissioning, transformation and upgrading of thermal power units, promote the coordinated development of heat and power, and strengthen the security of combined heat and power heating.

At the same time, the six departments also requested that all localities should focus on refined management of heating, accelerate the intelligent transformation and upgrading of heating systems, and solve the problem of heating systems that are near hot and far cold. During the heating season, various localities must improve the service supervision mechanism, unblock the channels for people to report their demands, promote service mechanisms such as "petition for warmth", "handling complaints immediately" and "heating housekeeper", clarify service standards and work requirements, and establish a closed-loop management mechanism for rapid response and efficient handling of people's demands.

The latest data shows that by the end of 2025, the centralized heating area in cities and towns in northern my country's heating regions has reached 14.75 billion square meters, of which 11.29 billion square meters are residential buildings.