ensure the use of natural gas? The answer was industry, zoning for individual natural gas boilers, and new zoning for natural gas CHP plants delivering heat to district heating networks in high-heat density areas. This story focuses on the third burning platform where most new district heating networks became community owned. This deployment of district heating has continued until today – partly because of the recent energy crisis and the technology-agnostic nature of district heating. How did the community-owned companies get established? Many small cities and urban areas in Denmark have quite strong communities used to make associations for all kinds of purposes 1 , and if local stakeholders and local authorities are responsible for getting a solution benefitting the community established, it is not unusual that local frontrunners call for a meeting with the purpose to develop an “Association” for joint lobbying against local authorities. Frontrunners can be local politicians, business owners, or private persons willing to work for the cause. Many new “Heat Associations” were established during the 1980s up to the middle of the 1990s. The steps for establishing these community-owned companies were as follows: The first action is to establish a local group of frontrunners. Often, local engineering advisors contacted the local civic association and offered assistance in evaluating the possible establishment of a community-owned company. A working group was established, including people elected for local government and local frontrunners. Often, local people with technical or economic skills were included. It was published in the community that it was intended to establish this group. Usually, everybody was invited to a public meeting to find out who would be interested in participating. The local frontrunners and politicians were not legally elected, and the group had no legal rights. The next step was to investigate a district heating project, which included all technical, economic, and legal circumstances for district heating, and make a plan for financing and establishing a district heating network. This was a tremendous job, and the group usually could not do this independently. The group and the advisor had to cooperate to get funding to make it possible for the advisor to conduct the investigations. The funding was typically donations and loans from companies delivering equipment for heat networks.Whenestablished,itcouldbecompaniesdelivering heat-producing equipment, companies delivering heat network pipes, local natural gas companies, and advisory
low-priced coal and heavy fuel oil. Most of these companies were established by local frontrunners and owned by the consumers. In the second phase, district heating companies were established in connection with the oil crisis, creating a ‘burning platform’ at the beginning of the 1970s. Consumers were forced to replace the individual oil boilers with something much cheaper. The solution was more district heating networks based on centralised large coal CHP plants in large cities and, in other cases, district heating networks based on heavy fuel oil or coal boilers in decentralised cities. This crisis mainly resulted in local authority-owned district heating networks and, in some cases, in community-owned district heating network companies associated with existing community-owned water companies and community-owned power grid companies. This development was mainly seen in the 1970s. The main driver of the widespread deployment of district heating in Denmark has been lowering the costs of heating – not the environmental aspects, as many might assume. Denmark’s third ‘burning platform’ was the second oil crisis and natural gas discovery in the 1970th. Consumers were forced to convert to either individual natural gas boilers or district heating CHP plants. Again, the target was to develop independence for imported oil and, in this case, replace it with natural gas from the fields in the North Sea. The government used zoning to find areas suitable for district heating and others for natural gas boilers within the gas network supply chain. After the zones were designated, local authorities were responsible for establishing networks and designing the heat sources. In zones for district heating, companies were required to establish CHP based on natural gas, but biomass CHP and waste incineration CHP were also allowed. Existing coal CHP plants could continue using coal. Local authorities were allowed to find their own heating solutions, and many small villages chose to establish a district heating network system based on natural gas CHP incentivised by subsidised electricity production. In some cases, if natural gas was unavailable, district heating networks were established and based on straw or wood pellet boilers. The remaining part of mainly rural areas kept oil boilers. All centralised cities were already converted to coal and waste incineration CHP at the third’ burning platform.’ The plants were relatively new and difficult to convert to natural gas, as they were more expensive, so where could the government
1 Common dairies, slaughterhouses, sport unions, assembly halls, kindergartens, apartment/dwelling associations, grocery stores, telephone companies, power stations, power grid companies, water companies, machine stations (for farmers), feed material companies (for farmers), etc.
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