Business and pricing models for district heating and cooling: A review

In recent decades, district heating and cooling has become a more and more relevant topic in the context of smart energy, and novel business models have been developed. However, while review papers have been written already on business models tied to specific contexts of district heating, there is the need for a generic review that encompasses all the most recent works on this field, giving an overview on the whole horizon of business and pricing models for district heating and cooling. In this work, we conduct a comprehensive review of business and pricing models for the use of flexible energy consumption in district heating and cooling, including their coupling with electricity systems. We examine both review papers on the topic and papers introducing novel models or enhancing existing ones. We identify key features to classify these papers, analyze how each work aligns with these criteria, and provide insights based on this analysis. Our research points out the need for novel business models targeting district cooling, devices different from heat pumps, non-European countries, machine-learning based algorithms and peak shaving.