Denmark swaps first come, first served for four tiers of grid access
Serguey Asael Shinder1 min readThe Danish parliament has adopted an emergency plan for connections to the electricity grid that replaces the first-come, first-served principle with a priority model, pv magazine reports, citing the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities.
The model sets four categories. The highest covers connections for critical societal functions, new households and general electricity consumption. The second covers electrification of transport, heating and industry as well as renewable energy, carbon capture and storage, and hydrogen projects. Energy storage is placed in the third category. The fourth, lowest, is reserved for certain large energy consumers, which is where data centres are expected to fall unless linked to a critical societal function. Within a category, projects that place less strain on the grid can be moved ahead, for example by shifting consumption to times when capacity is available.
The transmission operator Energinet and the local grid companies will be able to reject applications in categories three and four if enough capacity is not expected in the foreseeable future and a connection would displace higher-priority projects or burden the grid unduly; the Electricity Supply Authority will hear appeals. The plan, backed by a broad majority of parties, takes effect on 12 October. Minister Samira Nawa called the grid situation "deeply serious". A Liberal Party spokesperson, Mathilde Hjort Bressum, said the model must remain a tool for an acute situation and not become the new normal, and called for negotiations on expanding the transmission grid. Finland is consulting on a similar four-tier system until 9 October.
Why it matters
Ranking batteries below heat pumps and hydrogen, and data centres last, is an explicit political choice about what scarce grid capacity is for. It also means storage developers in Denmark now compete for connection on terms that the queue alone used to decide.