some countries, the fact that customer substations are owned by the buildings owner can also be problematic. in Estonia for example, new associations of owners were established after the privatization of apartments. in an attempt to reduce operational and maintenance costs, these often collectively decided not to conclude any maintenance contract. However, with the establishment of more competitive service companies, the trend has lately been reversed. Customer Focus District heating's reliability and simplicity can be very attractive for customers. They benefit from a gentle supply of heat and warm water, and consistent safety. They also get reduced space demand as no fuel is stored, no burning flame inside the buildings, no boiler room, and no hassle with maintenance. However, district heating systems in transition economies tend to be production-focused instead of being driven by customer needs and expectations. lndeed, planned economies in the past gave little attention to improving customer service. As a consequence, many customers switched to other heat suppliers as soon as they were able to do so. This move was often made easy by the existence of natura! gas networks in parallel with the heating networks, and by a lack of a policy framework to ensure a level playing field for the various types of heat supply alternatives. This was the case in Romania, a worst-case example: the lack of metering not only prevents the customer from controlling their own consumption, but also prevents the company from understanding customer behaviour. As housing companies in many transition economies act as the interface to the customer, there is a lack of direct contact with consumers of the district heating, which further adds to the difficulty. 1Tablo 1. National avcragcs for priccs or tariffs for district 1 heating, 2003 lllll• ••u• . �lClılıll,tıaı .. - � Austria 54 Bulgaria 22 Croatia 14-24 Czech 25-75 Denmark 40-50 Estonia 30 Finland 42 Germany 55 Hungary 25-50 lceland 21 Latvia 18-33 Lithuania 33 Netherlands 53 (43)• Norway 51 Poland 36 Romania 19 Slovakia <47 Sweden 48 • excluding value-added tax ARTICLE / MAKALE Prices and Price Regulation The price of heat is important to most customers, more so in transition economies, where a larger proportion of the family income is consumed by energy costs than in western countries. According to Euroheat & Power's latest country-by-country survey, prices continue to vary widely between countries (Table 1 ). 20 � 18 "' 16 14 " 15 .c .g 10 8 " 6 " 4 2 o o 10 15 Natural gas price including taxes €/GJ ■ Czech Republic Den mark France Hungary Netherlands ■ Finland Germany ■ Poland Switzerland ■ United Kingdom Natural gas with efficiency of 100 % - Natural gas with efficiency of 75 % 20 Natura! gas price with efficiency of 75 % +fixed cost Figııre 4. Co111parisoıı o.f prices .for disıricı lıeaı c111d natura/ gas beıweeıı 1999 aııd 2001. Denmark is the only western European country with heat-tariff regulation. in the rest of the EU-15, competition with fossil fuels is considered to be the best regulator for district heat prices2. The comparative prices for district heat and natural gas are shown in Figure 4. Most new EU member countries with district heating systems have or have had regulatory agencies for setting or approving district heat prices. The motivation is to protect the population from high heat prices in the transition to a market economy. Tariff regulation, however, often deploys its own dynamics. While generally resulting in higher prices, it does not always work for the benefit of district heating. Boilers using natura! gas or light fuel oil are the main alternatives to district heating. Together they dominate the European heat market. A common denominator for central and eastern European countries is the existence of direct competition between natura! gas and district-heating schemes. Often both systems are laid out in parallel in the same buildings. This is the result of historical approaches used in the development of the ENERJİ & KOJENERASYON OÜNYASI 53
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