District heating and cooling networks: Value chain

Pipe makers, heat pump builders and city heat utilities

What this tab covers Who does what, from equipment makers to builders, owners, operators, traders and users, with the leading companies at each step.

Heat networks are local businesses: pipe and equipment makers supply contractors, a municipal or private utility owns and runs the network (a natural monopoly), and regulators set prices and fuel rules. Independent market-share rankings are scarce, so the firms below are identified from company and trade-body data.

The chain

Pre-insulated pipe makers Heat exchangers, substations, controls and large heat pumps Multinational heat network operators City heat utilities District cooling operators Steam utilities Regulators

Stage	What happens	Leading companies
Pre-insulated pipe makers	Factory-made steel and plastic pipes in foam, joints and leak alarms	Kingspan Logstor (Denmark, owned by Kingspan, Ireland) isoplus (Denmark and Germany)¹⁶¹⁷
Heat exchangers, substations, controls and large heat pumps	Plate heat exchangers, building substations, valves and software, and compressors for large heat pumps	Danfoss (Denmark) Alfa Laval (Sweden) Kelvion (Germany) Everllence (Germany, formerly MAN Energy Solutions)³⁵²⁶²⁷²⁵
Multinational heat network operators	Own or run plants and pipes in many cities, selling heat under long contracts	Veolia (France) Engie (France) Vattenfall (Sweden) E.ON (Germany)¹⁹²⁸¹⁸³²
City heat utilities	Municipal or regional companies running a city's network	Stockholm Exergi (Sweden) Helen (Finland) Fortum (Finland, Espoo area)²⁹³⁰³¹
District cooling operators	Central chiller plants and chilled-water networks	Empower (UAE) Tabreed (UAE, Engie affiliate)¹⁰²⁸
Steam utilities	City steam systems for offices, hospitals and industry	Con Edison (US)⁸²⁴
Regulators	Consumer protection, prices and fuel-mix rules	Ofgem (Great Britain) EU member state authorities under Directive 2023/1791¹³¹¹

The EU Joint Research Centre describes the European value chain as robust, with European firms the main suppliers of grids, storage and large heat pumps. By company figures, Logstor makes over 4,000 km of pipe a year and isoplus made about 5,000 km in 2023. Engie calls itself the third-largest heating network operator and, through Tabreed, the leading cooling network operator; Veolia runs up to 500 European networks and aims to lead European urban heating by 2030. Stockholm Exergi sold 8.2 TWh in 2025 and Helen 5.4 TWh of district heat. Vattenfall sold its Berlin heat business to the State of Berlin in 2024. Kelvion's owners agreed in 2026 to sell it to SLB. Because a network cannot be duplicated on the same street, customers cannot easily switch, which is why price regulation is spreading.

Sources

Con Edison Steam: Future Overview (presentation to NYISO) Con Edison / NYISO, 2022
Empower's connected capacity has increased by 315 times since its establishment International District Energy Association, 2026
Directive (EU) 2023/1791, Article 26: Heating and cooling supply (German text) gesetze.legal (text of the EU Official Journal), 2023
Countdown to the launch of new regulatory rules for heat networks Ofgem, 2026
LOGSTOR company profile (company data) Danish Trade Council, Embassy of Denmark in the UK, 2024
isoplus company profile, Heat Networks Alliance 2024 (company data) Danish Trade Council, Embassy of Denmark in the UK, 2024
Vattenfall Corporate Factbook, March 2026 Vattenfall, 2026
Veolia ambitions to lead European district heating by 2030 and launches new offer in urban energy (company data) Veolia, 2025
Corporate facts Con Edison, 2026
MAN Energy Solutions is now Everllence Turbomachinery International, 2025
District heating (company data) Alfa Laval, 2026
SLB acquires Kelvion from Apollo and Triton in USD 4bn deal IPE Real Assets, 2026
ENGIE, a global player in local energy networks (company data) Engie, 2026
Annual and Sustainability Report 2025 (company data) Stockholm Exergi, 2026
Helen's financial statements release 2025 Helen, 2026
Fortum to invest approximately EUR 225 million in waste heat projects in Espoo and Kirkkonummi Fortum, 2023
E.ON continues growth path in 2025 and delivers on energy transition E.ON (via Placera), 2026
District energy (company data) Danfoss, 2026