Energy supply

A reliable energy supply is not a given

Whether at home or at work — we all use energy every day. No matter if it’s for cooking, heating, charging a phone, brewing coffee, keeping the office printer ready for use, or taking a shower: a reliable supply of electricity and heat is essential for our city to function, and it is anything but a given. A great deal of work goes into ensuring that the energy supply of a two-million metropolis like Vienna remains so reliable and efficient.

Vienna keeps control of its own energy supply

The functioning of life and economic activity in a city depends heavily on how secure and reliable its energy supply is. Vienna therefore places great importance on ensuring that it can reliably provide energy to its residents. To make sure people in Vienna never have to worry about a dependable energy supply, the city takes responsibility for managing its energy provision itself.

Vienna invests, so that its energy supply is secure

A total of 4,500 employees at Wien Energie and Wiener Netze work every day to ensure that Vienna’s roughly 30,000-kilometre electricity network operates smoothly, thereby guaranteeing the city’s round-the-clock energy supply. With a supply security level of nearly 100 percent, Vienna ranks among the international leaders. To maintain this standard, the city will invest heavily in supply security and the transition to renewable energy in the coming years.

Vienna has the lowest per capita energy consumption in Austria

Through a broad range of efficiency measures, Vienna has been able to significantly reduce its energy consumption and now ranks first in Austria. For comparison: the national average outside Vienna is roughly twice as high as Vienna’s value.

Vienna’s path to a climate-resilient city

The climate crisis presents enormous challenges for all of us. To take decisive action against climate change, the city has set the goal of becoming climate neutral by 2040. To achieve this, Vienna has already implemented numerous measures and continues to take many further steps:

• Vienna’s energy supply is being converted to renewable energy sources that are used locally and, in many cases, produced regionally — which in turn creates jobs in the city.
• Improvements in energy efficiency will reduce overall energy consumption. This is made possible by investments in the increasing electrification of the mobility and heating sectors, the coordinated expansion of district heating, the rollout of new technologies and business models, as well as by growing environmental awareness among the population and their changing mobility behaviour. 

Energy supply, that is secure and ecological, as a condition for a high quality of life

An energy supply based on reliability and ecological sustainability is one of the most important prerequisites for quality of life and the development of the city’s economic location. Vienna has set the goal of overcoming its dependence on oil and gas for heating by 2040. In the building sector, various options already exist to make energy supply renewable and future-proof.

Vienna has established in its Climate Roadmap that the city’s heating and cooling supply will be converted to renewable energy sources by 2040. District heating plays an important, though not exclusive, role in this transition. Currently, around 40 percent of the final energy consumption for heating and hot water in Vienna is covered by district heating.

The Vienna Heat Plan outlines all possibilities for climate-neutral heat supply that will be available by 2040. Specifically, it indicates, for each area, which type of heating is most suitable for buildings currently heated with oil or gas. Around 43 percent of the final energy consumption for heating and hot water is still from natural gas.

The Vienna Heat Plan foresees the expansion of district heating and an increased use of fossil-free, renewable sources and waste heat. In particular, buildings in densely populated parts of the city are to be converted from gas to district heating. On www.rausausgas.at, it is possible to check with a simple address search whether a building can already be connected to district heating or whether an expansion is planned in the neighborhood.

In less densely populated areas, renewable supply options such as solar energy, biogenic fuels, and heat pumps for heating and cooling are being considered.

Alignment of networks to climate neutrality and transition of energy supply to renewable sources

To create the conditions for an efficient and future-proof energy system based on renewable energy sources, the city is investing:

• Investments in the maintenance and expansion of grid infrastructure and storage facilities for electricity and heat.
• Investments in the expansion of the electricity grid.
• Densification and expansion of the district heating network, especially in areas with very high building density, to provide alternatives to natural gas heating.
• Ongoing reduction of the natural gas share in district heating by Wien Energie, with the goal of an independent energy future. By 2040, district heating will be completely climate-neutral.
• Rollout of the “Raus aus Gas” (Get Out of Gas) initiative and successful implementation of 100 flagship projects demonstrating how the transition from gas to renewable heating and cooling systems can succeed.
• During expansion work on underground infrastructure, optimal coordination to minimize inconvenience for residents. 
• Creation of planning security for customers, energy providers, and grid operators, including through energy spatial planning instruments.
• Facilitation and occasional support for the installation of new photovoltaic systems equivalent to roughly 100 football fields per year as part of the Vienna Solar Power Initiative. Installations take place primarily on already built-up areas, such as roofs, facades, and other sealed surfaces. This advances the energy transition by making Vienna independent from fossil fuels without reducing the city’s high share of green space.
• Investments in increased energy generation from geothermal sources as well as ground and wastewater heat.
• Investments in converting the district heating supply to renewable energy sources.
• Expansion of production and supply structures for green gas.
• Stabilization of energy prices in crisis situations through investments in independence from energy imports from abroad.

Further information on energy supply in Vienna can be found at:

City of Vienna. Energy planning

City of Vienna. Energy

Smart Climate City Strategy Vienna 

Vienna Heating Plan 2040

Vienna Climate Guide

Vienna Solar Power Initiative

Phasing Out Gas - Heating and Cooling Vienna 2040

Wien energie Electricity & Natural Gas Provider

Wien Energie Electricity & Natural Gas Distributor