Danish transmission system operator Energinet has opened a consultation on a new electricity producer payment model aimed at incentivising developers to build projects where there is plenty of space on the grid.
Energinet area manager Marie Budtz Pedersen said: “Our task is to ensure that the green transition is made as efficiently as possible.
“There will be many more photovoltaic systems and wind turbines in the coming decades, and in relation to the electricity grid, it is smarter to place them in parts of the country where there is more space in the grid than places where new plants will require society to expand the grid.
“And it will be fair and more cost-effective if electricity producers in the future pay a larger part of the costs that their plants actually entail.
“With the current rules, electricity consumers pay a disproportionately large part of the costs.”
The proposals would make it more costly to connect new electricity production plants to the grid in areas where the production is already greater than the consumption.
“Conversely, it will be relatively cheaper to connect new electricity systems in areas with production deficits, and where it is thus possible to incorporate new green energy without having to expand the electricity grid as much,” Energinet said.
It said those areas are currently East Jutland, Funen, North Zealand, Copenhagen area and on the island of Bornholm.
In addition to making differentiated connection contributions, Energinet proposes that new electricity generation plants in the transmission network must pay a standardised station connection contribution to cover average connection costs.
The TSO also proposes that all new electricity generation plants, both in the transmission network and in the distribution network, must also pay.
There would also be a standard connection fee per MW according to the size of the connection to cover average costs for network reinforcements in the ‘near electricity network’ and a geographically differentiated feed-in tariff to cover costs in the electricity grid.
Budtz Pedersen said: “In this way, we create both incentives to place new electricity systems in appropriate places in the electricity grid, and for new electricity producers to pay a larger share of the costs for expanding the electricity grid.”
The consultation runs until 11 March, after which Energinet will review and assess all comments and proposals received, and then send a possibly revised model report to the Supply Agency, which must approve the new rules.