The heating transition in Germany is facing major challenges. Distributed heat pumps and heating networks are key technologies for a climate-neutral heat supply – but they must be optimally coordinated with the electrical infrastructure. The INTegrierte WärmewENDe (INTEND) research project, which was launched in spring 2025, is investigating how the inertia and storage capacity of thermal systems can be utilised as flexibility potential for the benefit of the larger energy system in order to make the expansion of the electricity and heating infrastructure cost-efficient.

The core tasks are the further development of planning and simulation methods, case studies with grid operators and the demonstration of flexibility utilisation via the Equigy crowd balancing platform. In addition, the optimal combination of different technologies for different settlement types is to be determined.

The project brings together stakeholders from research, the energy sector and industry: TU Darmstadt, four municipal utilities from Kiel, Bamberg, Karlsruhe and Erlangen, transmission system operator TenneT, industrial companies Siemens and Yados and the industry associations AGFW and BWP are working together on an integrated view of the heating transition under the energy industry's triangle of objectives of security of supply, economic efficiency and sustainability.