The expansion of district heating contributes to the generally sought replacement of individual, fossil heating systems. The industry aims to improve energy efficiency through the "4th Generation District Heating," with a particular focus on reducing temperature levels in district heating pipelines. The return temperatures in the Salzburg-Hallein district heating network are considered too high by its operator, Salzburg AG. The main reason are suboptimally operating or poorly designed customer installations. The goal of this master's thesis is to develop an appropriate strategy for dealing with the current return temperatures based on technical and economic aspects. First, an extensive research phase will describe the benefits of lower return temperatures for the district heating network, optimization possibilities for customer installations, and legal framework conditions. In the subsequent analysis of the current status, the network infrastructure, the technical supply conditions for customer installations, and the existing tariff structures of Salzburg AG will be described and compared with those of other supply companies. Additionally, a comprehensive calculation of the economic benefits of reducing the return temperature based on real measurement data from the network will be conducted. According to the results, the economic benefits of reducing the return temperature are currently not irrelevant, but also not significant. Therefore, measures with the lowest possible investment cost and the highest possible benefit for both operators and customers are recommended. These include adjusting the technical supply conditions, providing an information leaflet for customers, and limited funding for efficiency measures and return connections. The implementation of return temperature-dependent tariffs is also examined, with several variants proposed. Potential difficulties and disadvantages of such concepts are also discussed.