Digital Heat Planning in Germany by LGMV
How LGMV carries out heat plans efficiently with Urbio in Germany
Picture this: You're tasked with one of the most complex urban infrastructure challenges in modern history—completely transform your municipality's heating system by 2045, with a detailed roadmap due in just 2-3 years. Miss the deadline? Face regulatory penalties, citizen backlash, and potentially disastrous investment decisions. Welcome to Germany's Heat Planning Act. For consulting firms, this regulatory mandate created unprecedented demand and also unprecedented headaches. Managing data for tens of thousands of buildings, translating complex energy concepts to non-technical stakeholders, all under strict deadlines. Most firms scramble with traditional tools and endless spreadsheets. Landgesellschaft Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (LGMV) took a different approach—leveraging Urbio's digital platform as a competitive advantage to win and execute municipal mandates efficiently.
Customer
Landgesellschaft Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Sector
Consulting firm
Location
Germany
Challenge: Navigating Germany's Heat Planning Mandate
Municipal heat planning (a.k.a Kommunale Wärmeplanung) isn't just business as usual—it's a rolling, multi-phase process that must be updated at least every 5 years until 2045. Municipalities must assess existing heating infrastructure, identify renewable energy potentials, develop target scenarios, and coordinate transformation across power, gas, and heat.
Meanwhile, stakeholders from mayors to utility executives need to understand complex energy concepts and make critical investment decisions.
True success means moving beyond static PDF deliverables towards digital workflows based on reusable and traceable databases—assets that can be efficiently monitored, updated throughout the decades-long transition and shared with all relevant stakeholders.
The pressure? Get it wrong, and municipalities face stranded assets worth millions, citizen revolts over heating bills, and missing Germany's 2045 climate targets.
We were drowning in spreadsheets and spending more time wrestling with data than actually helping municipalities plan their energy future.
— Dr. Andrea Schüch, Head of Renewable Energies Group, LGMV
Solution: Digital Heat Plans for Amt Rostocker Heide
LGMV didn't shy away when asked to conduct the joint municipal heat plan for Amt Rostocker Heide (incl. 7 municipalities). Here's how they embraced Urbio's digital edge to deliver results.
Unified Data Foundation
From the start, LGMV consolidated diverse data sources (e.g. “Kehrbuchdaten”, i.e. chimney sweep registry data) provided by the municipalities and utilities to enrich Urbio's digital twin. This resulted in a centralized and living data model, easy to update over time, and which keeps track of all data sources.
Optimized Scenario Planning
The platform mapped renewable energy opportunities and optimal heating network locations, then modeled multiple decarbonization pathways so municipalities could compare strategies and outcomes.
Transparent Stakeholder Engagement
After multiple steering committees, a live public session in March 2025 attracted a broader group of authorities, stakeholders and citizens. LGMV drew from Urbio's maps and metrics to communicate key findings. They highlighted for example the suitable areas for district heating, backed by clear heat maps and density lines (Figure 1).
Multi-year Monitoring Agreement
The digital approach builds trust: after the session, Amt Rostocker Heide signed a multi-year monitoring contract with LGMV to track and update their plan annually in Urbio. For forward-thinking municipalities, heat planning isn't a checkbox exercise—it's a living process that evolves continuously, not a costly PDF deliverable that becomes obsolete the moment it's filed away.
Figure 1. Urbio's heat density lines indicate suitable heating areas. Source: Amt Rostocker Heide
Benefits: Competitive Advantage in Action
Accelerated and Informed Decision-Making
By reducing time spent on data consolidation and scenario modeling, LGMV can swiftly generate comprehensive reports, focusing their expertise on value-added strategic analyses and stakeholder engagement that clients truly value.
Sustained Business Pipeline
Heat plans help identify concrete investment opportunities like district heating, and require legal updates at least every 5 years. This creates ongoing relationships: consultants who deliver initial heat plans build trust and domain expertise, positioning themselves ideally to secure subsequent feasibility studies and implementation projects. Besides Amt Rostocker Heide, LGMV has already replicated the approach to a dozen other municipalities.
One of our biggest challenges was explaining complex energy concepts to municipal stakeholders — from city council members to utility representatives. Urbio's visualizations and heat maps make these discussions so much more productive. Instead of trying to explain abstract concepts, we can show them exactly what we're proposing.
— Dr. Andrea Schüch, Head of Renewable Energies Group, LGMV
The Bottom Line
Municipal heat planning isn't a one-time compliance exercise. Plans must be updated through 2045 as conditions and projects evolve.
For the municipalities of Amt Rostocker Heide, LGMV didn't just deliver a plan—they created a replicable model that transforms regulatory burden into a strategic advantage, positioning them for long-term infrastructure investment confidence.
Germany's Heat Planning Act created the consulting opportunity of a decade. LGMV is seizing it and helping fast-track Germany's transition to climate-neutral municipalities.
