The kick-off meeting of the EU Horizon 2020 funded KeepWarm project took place on 11-12 April 2018. It was hosted by the Croatian partner REGEA at the beautiful venue of Bračak Energy Centre in Zagorje, outside of Zagreb. It brought together the 11 project partners from 9 European countries. During 2 days they discussed practial aspects of the project's implementation and how to best achieve their main common goal: improving the performance of district heating systems in Central and Eastern Europe.

KeepWarm will in particular work in Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine, where district heating systems are frequently still inefficient and for the most part still overly reliant on fossil fuels (oil, gas or coal). The aim of this initiative is to modernise those systems around the whole region and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving system operations and promoting a switch to less-polluting sources, like renewables. The project partners will strive to ensure that best practices for environmental-friendlier heating and cooling will be taken up across Europe, replicating KeepWarm’s approach in other countries and regions, even beyond the end of the project in September 2020.

The next in-person meeting of project partners will take place in October in Austria.