The Dutch government is targeting substantial growth within the heating sector, with ambitions to double the number of sustainable heat connections for households by 2030 – from 0.5 to 1 million – and eventually reaching 2.5 million connections by 2050. The proposed institutional design outlined in the new Heat Act, also known as the "Wet collectieve warmtevoorziening (Wcw)" or "Warmtewet 2.0," aims to catalyze the heat transition, by prescribing a public majority interest for distribution infrastructures.

This research focuses on (the problem of) researching what issues play a role regarding ownership division of distribution networks, using the Dutch heating sector as a case study. An analysis of the decision-making process from a multi-actor perspective, including the criteria being considered relevant regarding this process, are used as means for researching these issues present between (categories of) stakeholders. Issues are in this research defined as conflicts between (categories of) stakeholders related to ownership division of distribution networks in the Dutch heating sector.

The results present an overview of seven issues playing a role related to ownership division of distribution networks. These issues seem somehow to be related to the more nationalization-driven approach regarding the assurance of publuc values in network sectors.