Interesting that district heating is so popular there.

IIRC in the Netherlands people don't like it, because it because it means that there is a single company supplying my heat, with

    * minimum amounts of 'heat' purchased 
    * no incentives to maintain their infrastructure above the bare minimum
    * no competition

I live in a post-Soviet city with district heating, and I'm not really sure it's worth it. Our network is government run, and they don't do a bad job, but it is more expensive per kWh (8c) than if you were to heat with gas or an electric heat pump (both 6c).

The heat source of the network is gas or various oil fuels, so it makes sense that it's cheaper to do it yourself - gas infrastructure is very optimised, and there are very little network losses in comparison. I think it only makes sense if the network has a cheap energy source, for example by using waste energy from industrial processes or utility-scale geothermal.