On July 17, 2026, the European Commission presented the Electrification Action Plan (EAP). The plan aims for electricity to cover 46% of the EU’s final energy consumption by 2040, doubling the 23% at which it has been stuck for a decade.
Three months later, the debate is focused on how to apply it to the territory. Here the EAP sends a signal that is of particular interest to us: heating and cooling networks must cover 15% of the EU’s heat demand by 2030, waste heat must cover 11% by 2050, and the Commission announces an Action Plan for Heat and Cooling.
At Aiguasol, an energy engineering and consultancy cooperative, we approach the EAP in light of the work we do. Electrifying heat and cold will be more efficient, it will reduce the strain on the electricity grid and it will be fairer if it is done with thermal networks, with energy communities and with local planning.
Electrified District Heating and Cooling Networks: Maximizing Heat and Cold Output per kWh
Electrifying heat doesn’t just mean swapping boilers for individual heat pumps. Heat and cooling networks with high-powered pumps tap into sources that a building alone can’t use: groundwater, seawater, wastewater, or industrial wastewater. With thermal storage, they can shift electricity consumption to the hours with the highest renewable generation.
The EAP recognises this. According to Euroheat & Power, the plan attributes a key role to heating and cooling networks in reducing energy system costs and accelerating the electrification of buildings and industry. Energy Cities adds that collective and district solutions relieve pressure on the electricity grid.
Barcelona is already moving in this direction. In September 2026, Districlima inaugurated the Bogatell Power Plant, which produces cold water with seawater and has 56 MW of refrigeration plants, of which 14 are storage. The City Council is also promoting a new network in La Sagrera with high-efficiency heat pumps, groundwater from the Besòs and solar energy. In the new neighbourhood of La Mercedes, in Sant Andreu, we have developed the project for an electrified and independent heating and cooling network, and we have accompanied Conren Tramway, the developer, in the development of the master plan.
As coordinators of the LIFE IncentEU project, we work with the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, the Eurometropole Strasbourg and the City of Tallinn on more than 15 investment plans for low-temperature networks. These networks are powered by renewable and waste heat, with an increasing weight of high-power heat pumps and thermal storage to provide flexibility. The common methodology of thermal mapping, pre-feasibility and technical, financial and governance models aims to make these projects cost-effective and replicable.
In a Mediterranean climate, the same infrastructure covers a cold demand that grows with each heat wave. A network that produces heat and cold at the same time takes advantage of the heat extracted when cooling, something that an individual installation can hardly do.
Energy communities: Sharing Heat and Cold
Heating and cooling account for half of the EU’s final energy consumption and most of household consumption. However, in our experience with shared self-consumption projects, most energy communities only share electricity.
Incorporating renewable heat and cooling changes the magnitude of the benefit. A shared heat pump, geothermal field, or small neighborhood thermal network converts surplus PV into heat and cold that can be stored. Self-consumption increases, less energy is injected into an often congested distribution network, and it reduces most of the household’s energy bill. In addition, the energy community is a vehicle of good governance for neighborhood thermal networks: shared ownership, transparent pricing, and greater social acceptance.
This direction fits in with the European framework. The Energy Communities Action Plan 2026 aims to increase the installed capacity of energy communities tenfold by 2030. EGEC, for its part, welcomes the EAP’s action on thermal storage, passive geothermal cooling and geothermal heat pumps in public buildings.
At La Mercedes, the intention is for buildings to be connected to an energy community to cover electricity and air conditioning needs, with a deployment model that is yet to be defined. At La Bordeta, where we have coordinated the CELB energy community since 2022, this is the step we want to explore: moving from sharing electric kilowatt hours to also sharing thermal comfort.
Local Heating and Cooling Plans: Grounding the EAP at the Municipal Level
Local heating and cooling plans are the tool that turns the objectives of the EAP into concrete decisions. The Energy Efficiency Directive obliges municipalities with more than 45,000 inhabitants to draw them up. The EAP supports this through the European Cities Service, with a first phase of €15 million for 180 plans and the target of reaching 1,000 investment-ready plans.
A good plan answers questions that no building can answer on its own: where does a heating and cooling network make sense and where does an individual heat pump make sense, what renewable and waste sources are in each neighborhood, and how should all this be coordinated with the electricity distribution network? In this way, electrification is deployed in an orderly way, and not building by building.
This is the approach we apply to the plans for Madrid, Milan, Irún and Hondarribia. We identify the necessary measures and plan their deployment taking into account the socio-economic reality of each neighbourhood and the capacity of the municipal technical teams that must execute it. IncentEU’s investment plans are the next step: turning the identified areas into projects with a business model and financing, which is exactly what the European Cities Facility wants to promote.
In southern Europe, these plans must include cold with the same weight as heat. EGEC recalls that the future Action Plan for Heat and Cold must address the growing need for efficient cooling, and in Barcelona the networks are being expanded above all to cover a growing demand for cooling.
Flexibility: Optimizing Storage Assets
The EAP recognises that the capacity of the electricity grid is one of the great limits of electrification and responds flexibly: reforming access tolls, accelerating the deployment of smart meters and integrating heat pumps into demand response markets .
The key is how batteries and thermal accumulators are managed. At Aiguasol we develop control systems that optimise the charging and discharging of electrical and thermal storage in real time, with economic criteria (variability of market prices) and environmental criteria (maximum use of renewable energies and minimum emissions).
We are applying this to the CERCOOP BAT projects, with the Fruits de Ponent d’Alcarràs cooperative and INNECOB, with the energy community of La Bordeta, where we optimise the control of batteries linked to collective self-consumption systems. Applied to a heating and cooling network or to an energy community with thermal storage, the same approach converts the demand for heat and cold into flexibility for the electricity system.
Electrifying with Networks, Communities and Strategic Planning
The EAP sets the course towards a Europe that is less dependent on fossil fuels. For heat and cold to reach half of energy consumption, they must reach the territory with three tools: electrified heating and cooling networks, energy communities that also share thermal energy, and local heating and cooling plans that organise investments and coordinate with the electricity grid.
At Aiguasol we work every day with city councils, metropolitan areas, energy communities and investors, so that the transition is efficient, bankable and fair.