Smart Solutions and Opportunities for District Heating: The Case of Budapest

Sa？etak The smart city, as a phenomenon, primarily focuses on citizens, city services, decision making mechanisms and information technology solutions, with various criteria such as sustainable development, economic efficiency and broad participation. One of its subsystems is the Smart Environment, which among others, aims for decreasing energy consumption and increasing energy efficiency of the built environment: to make energy processes more sustainable (renewable energies, water management), and circular processes utilizing resources. District heating is one of the most environmentally friendly and modern method of heat supply (with concentrated emission and efficient power supply of renewable energies), which is present in the heat market of Budapest with a share of about 30 %. District heating supplier of the capital city (F？TáV) provides to nearly quarter million dwellings. Present article focuses on the district heat supply in Budapest, the use of resources and renewable energies and demonstrates the investments of the high-efficiency cogeneration facilities according to the EU directive on the heat producer’s side. The article also presents public energy saving tenders in district heating in the capital so far: I LOVE PANEL and OKOS-HáZAK project