European SHaKE Project: Training Engineers for the District Heating Systems of Tomorrow
How can we heat and cool cities while reducing their dependence on fossil fuels? District heating and cooling networks are one of the key drivers of the energy transition. But their transformation—which involves integrating renewable and recovered energy sources, operating at lower temperatures, optimizing control systems, and detecting faults—requires new skills. Through the European project SHaKE, funded by Erasmus+, Pascal Stabat, a faculty researcher, and Antoine Fabre, a research engineer—both at the Center for Energy, Environment, and Processes (CEEP) at Mines Paris – PSL, are collaborating with the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) and theUniversitat Jaume I in Castellón to train students, doctoral candidates, faculty, and professionals in these rapidly evolving energy systems. Six educational modules in English, developed through this European collaboration, are now available free of charge via open access.
Sharing Heat at the Neighborhood or City Level
Rather than generating heat separately in each building, a district heating network allows heat to be generated or recovered at one or more industrial sites and then distributed to multiple buildings via a network of pipes. The same principle can be applied to the generation and distribution of cooling.
The benefit of these infrastructures lies in particular in their ability to mobilize various energy resources across a region and to integrate renewable or recovered energy sources. However, the situations vary greatly across Europe. In the Nordic countries, networks are already well developed and can, in particular, harness significant renewable energy resources. In Central and Eastern Europe, the main challenge lies in renovating aging networks. In Western Europe, where their deployment is more limited, the focus is on both developing new networks and improving the performance of existing ones.
It is against this backdrop that Sharing Heat and Knowledge on Energy Communities (SHaKE) was launched—an Erasmus+ cooperation partnership in higher education (KA220-HED) coordinated by BME in collaboration with Mines Paris–PSL and Universitat Jaume I. Its objective is to strengthen the knowledge and skills needed to design and operate more efficient and sustainable heating and cooling networks.
Increasingly Complex Energy Systems
Behind the pipes that crisscross a city lies a complex energy system. It is necessary to assess buildings’ heating, cooling, and hot water needs; size the equipment and the network; select energy sources; and manage the entire system to minimize losses and ensure its proper operation.
This complexity is increasing with the energy transition. Networks must be able to integrate a wider variety of sources, including renewable energy, heat recovered from other activities (known as “waste heat”), and resources available at lower temperatures. Heat pumps can then be used to raise the temperature of these resources. Their operation can also help integrate thermal and electrical systems, as well as provide flexibility to these systems.
Improving performance, therefore, is not simply a matter of changing the energy source. The return water temperature, the plumbing systems inside buildings, heat exchangers, valves, and control systems all influence the system’s overall operation. Leaks, fouling of heat exchangers, or equipment malfunctions can degrade performance. Detecting these issues and analyzing the resulting data thus become key challenges for operators.
Six modules to understand the entire chain
How can we train future engineers in systems that integrate building thermal engineering, hydraulics, energy production, digital technology, and optimization? SHaKE addresses this question by pooling the expertise of its three partner institutions.
The project has resulted in six educational modules in English, covering an introduction to district heating networks, heating and cooling needs in buildings, sustainable energy sources, district cooling networks, advanced heating and cooling systems, and, finally, the renovation of existing networks.
This complementary approach reflects the challenges faced in the various partner countries. At Mines Paris – PSL, Pascal Stabat and Antoine Fabre led the development of two modules corresponding to their areas of expertise: Heat and Cold Energy Demands of Buildings and Advanced Systems in District Heating and Cooling.
The first module starts with the building to understand the network: how can we assess its heating, cooling, and hot water needs? How should we size emitters, pipes, pumps, valves, and substations? The goal is, in particular, to understand how building-side installations interact with the network that supplies them.
The second track focuses more on improving existing networks: reducing return temperatures, integrating renewable and low-temperature sources, optimizing control systems, analyzing data, and detecting faults and their causes. It builds on research topics that have been studied for several years at Mines Paris – PSL, particularly regarding the control and diagnostics of heating networks.
From the Classroom to the District Heating Network
SHaKE does more than just produce educational materials. In the spring of 2026, Mines Paris – PSL hosted a week-long blended mobility program, bringing together master’s and doctoral students from the three partner institutions: four students from BME, four doctoral students from Universitat Jaume I, and six participants from PSL, including three students from PSL’s Master’s in Energy program and three doctoral students.
Over the course of a week, participants explored the principles of heating and cooling networks, building needs analysis, production technologies, network sizing, and digital and mapping tools. The course was taught by Balazs Bokor from BME, Adrián Mota Babiloni from Universitat Jaume I, and Pascal Stabat, Antoine Fabre, and Quentin Samudio from Mines Paris – PSL.
The training combined theory with hands-on practice. A technical tour of a district heating network in Bagneux allowed the students to observe a real-world installation. They also worked on a feasibility study: designing one or more district heating networks for a municipality near Bordeaux, based on its energy needs and available renewable or recovered resources, before evaluating their economic and environmental performance. The program thus included dedicated time for the project throughout the week, leading up to its final presentation.
This experience now informs a new course dedicated to heating and cooling networks for the energy transition, integrated into the ATHENS week. This is a way to extend SHaKE beyond the project itself and to share these lessons with students from a broader network of European institutions.
Open Resources to Share Skills
Another key goal of SHaKE is precisely to make this knowledge reusable. The six modules are therefore offered free of charge and with open access—not only to students and instructors but also to researchers and professionals.
Teaching guides, presentations, self-assessment quizzes, practical exercises, case studies, and question banks can be used for self-directed learning or integrated into other training programs. Some exercises even provide Python files and Jupyter notebooks for working on energy modeling, evaluating grid performance, or analyzing substation behavior.
By sharing these resources beyond the three partner institutions, SHaKE addresses a challenge that goes beyond technology alone: ensuring that skills evolve at the same pace as energy systems. After all, deploying grids capable of integrating more renewable and recovery resources also requires training the engineers who will design, size, operate, and improve them in the future.
