P21
By Anders Hasselager, Project Manager, GATE21
to keep the high level of security of supply of energy and to maintain the whole energy system.
The Danish energy system is well defined but it’s not always well coordinated. The existing energy system in Denmark has been continuously developed over the last four decades. Each decade has its highlights. The 1980’es, were the heat planning decade where heat planners traveled around Denmark in order to coordinate heating activities. At the same time, huge district heating systems were expanded in most cities and the house owners were encouraged to increase energy efficiency of their homes. In the 1990es, Denmark focused on renewable energy, and huge wind turbine parks were raised at both land and sea. The energy system’s challenge was how to integrate the electricity to the transmission and grid system. The key words for the first decade in the new century were liberalization of the energy sector and unbundling on subsectors followed by market solutions. After 2010, the main challenge is integration of energy sectors or system integration. Energy is now produced at a variety of plants from fossil to renewable plants. The latest trend is to convert coal-fired plants into biomass or solid waste units. In total, 30 % of our energy production is based on renewable energy sources and more than half of the electricity production comes from wind turbines. Today we ask ourselves how and where to use the renewable energy sources in an efficient way. As stated in the beginning of the article, the Danish energy system is well defined but it’s not always well coordinated. In order to illustrate this we have to look at some of the main partners within the sector. First we have the role of the national authorities Ministry of Energy, Utility and Climate, the Danish Energy Agency and the Energynet.dk (the Danish transmission operator). They set the framework conditions for the overall energy policy and they initiate campaigns for energy savings. They have a huge toolbox of policies and they use both carrots and sticks as they balance subsidies and energy taxes. One of the main tasks is
At the local level, the five Danish regions and the 98 municipalities are responsible for the strategic energy planning. It is their job to allocate space for heating installations and areas for wind turbine parks. Furthermore, the municipalities are responsible for pointing out zones for district heating (and natural gas) and make sure that all buildings within the zone will be provided with a heat solution. The municipalities engage a heat supply company, which is very often the local district heating company, which can then be a private company owned by the consumers themselves or by the municipality. The heat can be produced at local plants or it can be purchased from a heat transmission company. There are many bodies involved in designing and operating the energy system and they all have to be involved in the development of the system. Furthermore, we see crosscutting activities between subsectors and it’s now less relevant to talk about electricity and heating sectors because of the interaction. New disruptive technologies are developed and the electricity and heating systems will soon be smart and intelligent and well integrated. Many intelligent solutions are already developed and they only need to be implemented and spread to all energy systems. Technology seems not to be a barrier for further development. A huge challenge is coordination between the relevant parties at national, regional and municipal level. These public partners should also coordinate their initiatives with the heating companies and private operators of energy systems in order to make optimal investments. A main question is how we ensure that the involved bodies understand each other’s objectives and the incitements for investments and continuously development of the energy system.
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