Our paper focuses on the development of effective pathways for ensuring sustainable development of urban heat supply systems in the context of liberalization of economic relations in the energy sector. Using the example of the Moscow region, we reveal regularities in the change in the structure of heat sources and the organization of the main elements of the heat supply system. In addition, we propose an improved method for the formation of the marginal tariff for heat taking into account the structure of heat sources and allowing to eliminate the existing disadvantages of introducing market-based pricing methods. Moreover, we develop a mechanism for the sustainable development of centralized heat supply systems based on the organization of competitive selection of heat suppliers and the method of forming the maximum heat tariff.