Our heat and power generating plants play an important role in supplying the Danish district heating and electricity grids with great flexibility and at a competitive price.
In the past, they ran on various fossil fuels, including large amounts of coal. Today, they’ve been almost entirely converted to operate without coal, with sustainable biomass providing the main low-carbon alternative to the heavily polluting fossil fuel.
Today, we operate our seven large-scale CHP plants, one heat plant, and one peak load power plant as efficiently as possible, minimising environmental impacts. While these plants continue to play an important role in our low-carbon energy business, building new ones is not part of our strategy for the future.
How do combined heat and power plants work?
Heat and power plants burn fuel to create high-pressure steam to turn turbines that drive electricity generation. The remaining heat in the steam is then used to heat water for district heating.
Generating heat and power in combination means that more of the fuel’s energy content is released – up to 89 % at the high-tech Avedøre CPH near Copenhagen. This efficiency makes our power stations more cost-effective by using less fuel to generate the same amount of energy.
Biomass has allowed us to retire coal
Over the years, we’ve taken significant steps towards decarbonising our CHP plants.
Timeline
1970s
1990s
2009
2017
2019
2023
The combined heat and power (CHP) plants in Denmark were converted from oil to coal to reduce oil import dependency.
As the awareness of climate change and the demand for carbon reductions increased, politicians and energy companies began to explore greener alternatives to coal.
We decided not to build new coal-fired power plants and instead convert our CHP plants to use wooden biomass. There was widespread support among politicians and our municipal district heating customers for wooden biomass as the most climate-friendly alternative to coal.
We decided to fully phase out coal by 2023* – a fundamental step in our green transformation.
* Following orders from the Danish authorities, Ørsted must delay its target to stop using coal one year to 2024. Ørsted maintains its goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2025.
To ensure the security of the electricity supply in Denmark, the Danish authorities have decided to order Ørsted to continue and resume operations of three of its Danish power station units. This applies to two units which use coal as their primary source of fuel, and one which uses oil as fuel. One of these is Ørsted’s last coal-fired powerplant in operation, scheduled to be decommissioned on 31 March 2023, and the two other units have already been decommissioned.
The Danish authorities have ordered Ørsted to keep the three units in operation until 30 June 2024.
In 2019, coal only accounted for 9 % of our energy generation, having reduced our coal consumption by 91 % from 2006.
By 2023, we’ll have phased out coal entirely*, bringing the emissions from generation close to zero.
* Following orders from the Danish authorities, Ørsted must delay its target to stop using coal one year to 2024. Ørsted maintains its goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2025.
To ensure the security of the electricity supply in Denmark, the Danish authorities have decided to order Ørsted to continue and resume operations of three of its Danish power station units. This applies to two units which use coal as their primary source of fuel, and one which uses oil as fuel. One of these is Ørsted’s last coal-fired powerplant in operation, scheduled to be decommissioned on 31 March 2023, and the two other units have already been decommissioned.
The Danish authorities have ordered Ørsted to keep the three units in operation until 30 June 2024.
The future of biomass
With the increasing green electrification of Denmark’s energy system, the role of our CHP plants is primarily to produce heating for the Danish district heating system and backup power for the Danish electricity grid.
In future, technologies like large-scale heat pumps, electrical boilers, and surplus heat from Power-to-X facilities are expected to become cost-competitive alternatives to CPH plants. This means that over time, they can replace and supplement a substantial part of the sustainable biomass in Danish district heating.
