IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2021 - 104

independence for up to 20 years. Activist
groups mobilized public support
for the argument that rights to these
natural resources belonged to the Danish
state, not to Maersk and the Danish
Underground Consortium.
Negotiations between the Danish
government and Maersk ensued. Two
hundred and ninety-four days on, the
parties were no closer to an agreement.
Slightly stricter concessional terms
were later agreed upon. The Danish
state demanded faster extraction of
natural resources and secured rights
to 40% of the production. Natural gas
production began in 1984, and Danish
North Sea oil and gas generated revenue
for the first time in 1988.
In the following decades, the stateowned
transmission system for gas
from the privately owned North Sea
oil fields was gradually incorporated
into the national heating infrastructures.
Tax revenues from oil and gas
benefitted the struggling Danish economy
and, in part, financed the growing
costs of the Danish welfare state.
1990s: Energy Independence
and Growing Environmental
Awareness
The Danish Energy 2000 Action Plan
from 1990 was widely considered
the first strategy for greenhouse gas
reductions in the world. This Danish
energy plan set the scene for the lowcarbon
energy transitions and sustainable
development initiatives ahead.
This plan aimed to reduce energy consumption
levels and CO2 emissions
nationally; planned for phasing out
coal; suggested subsidies for energy
efficiency initiatives and renewables
integration into the grid; introduced
environmental taxes; suggested energy
labeling of buildings and control
of heat-related infrastructures; and
it increased energy regulation in the
table 1. The first century of district heating in Denmark.
1903 First waste-to-energy plant in Denmark built in Frederiksberg; provided heat
and electricity for municipal institutions
1914 1914-1918: World War I
1920s 1920s-1930s: District heating infrastructures and CHP plants develop
1939 1939-1945: World War II
1957 The Danish Association for District Heating is established
1962 Maersk awarded the right to investigate and exploit oil and natural gas
resources in the Danish part of the North Sea; the Danish Underground
Consortium established
1973 First International Energy Crisis
1976 The Danish Energy Agency established; the Danish Energy Plan 1976
prepares for long-term energy policy
1979 Second International Energy Crisis
1979 First Heat Supply Act: natural gas integrated into the heat supply infrastructures
via the planning concept of " zoning " ; focus on power generation via
CHP plants; aimed for harvest of waste heat from other industry
1981 National-scale heat planning throughout the country starts
1984 Extraction of natural gas from the Danish part of the North Sea begins
1986 The political cogeneration agreement; emphasis on small-scale CHP plants
1990 Energy 2000: the first plan for low-carbon energy transitions in the world;
Second Heat Supply Act; heat infrastructure planning decentralized; specific
prerequisites regarding fuel choice and cogeneration sent to a number of
municipal counties
2000 Third Heat Supply Act: improved conditions for small- and medium-sized
decentralized CHP and bare field plants
104
ieee power & energy magazine
figure 7. The oil crisis, 1973.
(Source: Danish Energy Agency;
used with permission.)
november/december 2021
The technical
solutions,
combinations,
and fuel usage
in individual
district heating
systems can
be adapted to
specific local
contexts and
the locally
available fuel
resources.
larger building stock. By the 1990s,
the economy of the natural gas project
was not doing well.
The second revision of the Heat
Supply Act in 1990 integrated the objectives
of the Energy 2000 Action Plan.
One of the initiatives, among others, was
to increase the number of CHP plants
in the national heat supply infrastructures
and support the economy of
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