A new report from the Danish Utility Regulator points to flexible electricity consumption as an important part of the solution to the growing pressure on the electricity grid. According to the Danish District Heating Association, the flexibility of district heating should be recognised when scarce grid capacity is allocated.
24 June 2026 | Original article in Danish by Niels Peter Berg, the Danish District Heating Association
The pressure on the electricity grid is already well known to many district heating companies. As more heat production is electrified through large heat pumps and electric boilers, access to grid capacity is becoming an increasingly important issue.
A new report highlights the need for flexibility
On 14 June 2026, the Danish Utility Regulator published the report Flexibility in the Danish Electricity System, which evaluates how far Denmark has come in creating the framework for flexibility, based on ACER’s 12 action points.
The following day, on 15 June, the regulator followed up with the event Framework for Flexibility in the Danish Energy System, where the Danish Utility Regulator, the Danish Energy Agency, and grid companies shared their views on the current status and challenges in a flexibility market that is still relatively immature.
The report’s overall assessment is that Denmark is on the right track, but is currently in an intermediate phase: the basic framework is in place, but the full value of flexibility depends on making the system more coherent, less complex, and better able to turn potential into actual participation.
Thermal storage makes flexibility possible
The electrification of district heating is well underway and is driving a significant part of the overall electrification of society.
The district heating sector’s electricity consumption amounted to around 2.7 TWh in 2025 — equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of approximately 750,000 households — and the number of electricity-based heat production plants has more than tripled since 2019. The Danish District Heating Association expects the sector’s degree of electrification to increase to just over 40% within the next ten years.
The key point is that district heating can contribute to all three forms of flexibility needed by the electricity system: grid adequacy, balancing, and capacity adequacy.
Large heat pumps and electric boilers are often connected with limited grid access and form part of an integrated system with heat storage and alternative production units such as CHP, biomass boilers, and gas boilers. These alternative units can be started up when electricity prices are high and the grid is under pressure, allowing electricity-consuming units to reduce output and shift consumption away from the most congested hours. During periods of high pressure, district heating can even shift from consuming electricity to producing it. This is a characteristic that sets district heating apart from most other market players.
In addition, district heating can absorb green electricity that would otherwise be downregulated and lost. During the debate at the event, participants called for greater focus on wasted electricity from wind and solar power — and district heating, heat storage, and sector coupling are obvious ways to make use of green electricity that the power system would otherwise be unable to utilise.
“The Danish Utility Regulator’s report confirms what we have been pointing out for a long time: the flexibility already exists, and district heating can deliver on all the flexibility needs of the electricity system. When grid capacity is a scarce resource, this system value should be taken into account,” says Michael Søgaard Schrøder, Chief Consultant at the Danish District Heating Association.
Prioritising grid-friendly heat projects
The Danish District Heating Association is working actively to ensure that the flexibility and system value of district heating are more clearly recognised when scarce electricity grid capacity is allocated.
This applies both to the dialogue on Energinet’s prioritisation model for connection to the transmission grid and to the corresponding handling in the distribution grid, where many district heating electrification projects are in fact connected.
At the Danish Energy Agency’s event, one grid company, TREFOR Infrastruktur, also pointed out that flexibility does not necessarily provide the greatest value at the lowest voltage levels, where physical grid expansion can often be carried out relatively quickly and cheaply. Instead, the greatest value may be found at higher voltage levels — for example 50/60 kV and at the interface with the transmission grid.
This is precisely where many of the larger district heating electrification projects are connected, and where their flexibility therefore has the greatest socio-economic value.
Specifically, the Danish District Heating Association recommends that limited grid access, heat accumulation, and documented flexibility be incorporated as criteria for grid-friendliness, and that district heating companies should not face widely differing requirements depending on which part of the electricity grid they are connected to.
“District heating flexibility is not theoretical. And it does not come only from heat storage, but also, to a large extent, from alternative production units — CHP, biomass boilers, and gas boilers — which can start up when electricity prices are high.
This allows electric boilers and heat pumps to reduce output and shift consumption away from the congested hours, and that should count when a district heating project is assessed as grid-friendly,” says Søren Lorenz Rask Søndergaard, Chief Consultant at the Danish District Heating Association.
Turning electrification into a system benefit
In its government platform, the Danish government has announced an emergency plan for the electricity grid. Dansk Fjernvarme expects a legislative proposal on prioritising access to the electricity grid to be sent for consultation before the summer holidays, and we are following the process closely.
The Danish District Heating Association is working to ensure that future prioritisation is based on socio-economic and security-of-supply considerations — and not solely on who is furthest advanced in the process. Collective district heating projects that further develop existing energy infrastructure or document grid-friendliness should, as a general rule, be given higher priority than data centres and commercial stand-alone batteries.
However, data centres with binding agreements on the utilisation of surplus heat in a collective district heating system should be assessed differently from data centres without such an agreement.
For the district heating sector, the goal is clear: electrification must not be slowed down by unclear or unsuitable grid connection processes. Projects that can deliver green heat and support the electricity system should be recognised as part of the solution.
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This article was translated into English by DBDH with the assistance of AI tools. The content has been reviewed and edited by the editorial team.
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