French General Code of Local Authorities
In forceI.-Municipalities are responsible for creating and operating a public heating or cooling network. This activity constitutes an industrial and commercial public service, managed according to the procedures defined in section 1 of this chapter. This responsibility may be transferred by the municipality to a public body of which it is a member. This public establishment may have the project management of this network carried out by another public establishment.
II.-Territorial authorities responsible for a public heating or cooling distribution service draw up a master plan for their heating or cooling network. This master plan contributes to achieving the objective of supplying heating or cooling networks from renewable and recovered energy sources. It includes an assessment of the quality of the service provided and the possibilities for densifying and extending this network and interconnecting it with other networks located nearby, as well as an assessment of the possibilities for developing the share of renewable and recovered energy sources in the supply of the network, and an assessment of the advisability of creating a public cooling distribution service. It is drawn up no later than five years after the network is brought into service, and revised every ten years. For networks commissioned between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2019, the master plan referred to in this II shall be drawn up before 31 December 2021.
III.-The local authorities responsible for a public heating or cooling distribution service shall define, in accordance with Chapter II of Title I of Book VII of the Energy Code, the priority development zones for classified heating and cooling networks within which connection is mandatory. A decree in the Conseil d'Etat defines the priority development zone that applies in the absence of such a decision.
