District heating networks can technically enable energy-related co-operations between energy-intensive industries and municipal energy companies. The most common form of co-operation is to utilise industrial waste heat as the primary energy source in district heating networks. However, another type of co-operation is to jointly own a plant that produces both process steam for the industry and hot water for district heating. In this article, eight Swedish energy co-operations are studied and the main focus is on the process leading to co-operations of this kind. Different aspects of factors that facilitate or obstruct the start up and continuous daily operation of a co-operation are discussed. The main conclusion is that while the primary reasons for the foundation of such co-operations are favourable techno-economic factors, this is not enough for a co-operation to emerge. This study highlights the importance of people with a real ambition to co-operate in both parties in the co-operations. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.