District heating is hell. Most ex-Soviet/Warsaw pact countries tried to move from district to direct gas, or small CCGT plants (as in one for about 10000 peopl

District heating is hell. Most ex-Soviet/Warsaw pact countries tried to move from district to direct gas, or small CCGT plants (as in one for about 10000 people) exactly for this reason: maintenance is hell and losses are enormous. And that's in high-density urban. In low-density suburbs it won't ever fly.