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How stable is your energy supply?
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Profile Sheets: Green Denmark
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How stable is your energy supply?
Energy consumption is rising around the world, much of it based on oil from politically unstable regions. Global society is also becoming ever more dependent on electricity, which cannot be stored in quantity and thus requires continuous uninterrupted supply. Maintaining security of energy supply, in all its aspects, is a major challenge for governments worldwide.
At present, Denmark is virtually self-sufficient in energy, due to its own modest reserves of oil and natural gas in the North Sea, the increased use of renewable energy resources, and decades of focus on energy efficiency which has kept overall energy consumption virtually unchanged for 30 years despite economic growth of over 50%.
Future preparedness
But Denmark has already started looking ahead to the time when its oil and gas production will decline, and the government has formulated a long-term energy policy to ensure a balance between security of supply, economic growth and respect for the environment. “Energy Strategy 2025” puts forward a range of initiatives that look at energy security from both the consumption and production perspective: intensified energy-saving efforts to reduce overall energy consumption; increased use of renewable energy to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and combat anthropogenic climate change; and an intensified focus on more effective technologies and alternative fuels to provide competitive alternatives to diesel and gasoline in the transport sector - the one key area where energy consumption has continued to rise over time.
Contingency planning
Nordic governments have recognised modern society’s increasing dependence on electricity and the crucial importance of the transmission grid to secure a continuous electricity supply. Furthermore, national transmission networks in the Nordic region have increasingly acquired transnational characteristics. Cooperation between the Nordic transmission system operators and the authorities is therefore necessary regarding contingency planning and crisis management, in order to manage major power outages and the resulting cascade effects.
State control
To safeguard future economic growth, the Danish government is committed to ensuring sufficient capacity through expansion of the electricity infrastructure in a way which reinforces security of supply while encouraging environmentally friendly electricity production and promoting
competition.
At the start of 2005, the Danish State took over responsibility as transmission system operator for both electricity and gas from the commercial suppliers who hitherto handled this task.
Ownership is now exercised by a state enterprise, Energinet.dk, which is completely independent of commercial activities. The objective is to ensure open and equal access for all users of the network.
Related Case: Nordic cooperation
The Nordic power system is the most integrated in Europe. The single electricity market consists of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
Case: Nordic cooperation
Video: Environment and Energy
Malene Freudendal-Pedersen's blog on sustainability
Danish Energy Statistics 2008
PDF-version
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