The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of heat pumps in total site heat integration. It will be shown how heat pumps can help de-bottleneck heat transfer so that maximum energy savings are attained. Non-linear targeting models to get maximum cost savings and optimum heat pumping temperature levels are presented. Finally, the paper describes optimal solutions with heat pumps that do not cross the pinch, contradicting an old result from pinch technology. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.