The Danish energy wholesale market is undergoing liberalization in order to stimulate free competition in production and trade. The most important step towards free electricity markets for instance was taken in 1999 with an EU directive on full liberalization of electricity markets. The Danish retail electricity market has been liberalized since 2003. This means that the Danish electricity consumers have the right to choose from whom they want to buy their electricity. As a consequence of the adoption of the Third Energy Package in 2009, EU Member States had to ensure national regulators independent from both industry interests and government. The NRAs must be their own legal entity and have authority over their own budget. Thus, The Danish Energy Regulatory Authority was until 2009 a department under the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority. Following the Third Energy Package, DERA got separated from any government institution to adhere to the requirements set out in the Third Energy Package. Moreover, the Third Energy Package required separation of energy supply and generation from the operation of transmission networks, known as “unbundling”. DERA certified Energinet.dk as ownership unbundled TSO in 2011. Energinet.dk is sole owner of the transmission network in all of Denmark. The certification of Energinet.dk meant that Energinet.dk became a transmission company considered to be ownership unbundled from all production and supply activities. 3. Power system economics Chapter 1 covers the topics on installed generation capacity, technology mix and gives a short description of major companies that provide electricity services. 3.4 The economics of a household on electricity The yearly electricity bill of an average household in Denmark (4.900 kWh) is around 1.500 euros. Only 13 % of this is the price of the actual commodity. The remaining 87 % is taxes, transmission and distribution. The average disposable income (after tax) per person in Denmark was around 28.000 euros, meaning that the electricity bill amounted to approximately 2,5 % of the disposable income, assuming the household has two average incomes. 4. Monopoly regulation 4.1 Monopoly design and tools for regulating the monopolies In the Danish power system, the transmission grid is owned and run by the Transmission system operator, Energinet.dk, which is a natural monopoly owned by the Danish Ministry of Energy and supervised and regulated by the Danish Energy Regulatory Authority. The Danish distribution grids are also being regulated
as natural monopolies. The Danish distribution companies are subject to incentive-based regulation whereas Energinet.dk (Danish TSO) is subject to cost-of-service regulation. 5. Electricity transmission 5.1 Distribution companies There are roughly 60 distribution companies in Denmark owned by municipalities, cooperatives or commercial actors according to the Danish Energy Regulatory Authority’s website. In total, the 60 distribution companies distribute around 14 TWh per year. The 5 biggest distribute around 59 % of the total distributed consumption. The biggest distributor is Radius, which is owned by DONG, who has a market share of 27 %. Radius is a publicly listed company. The table below shows the top 5 distributing companies in Denmark. Table 1, The 5 biggest distribution companies in Denmark Company Ownership GWh/year Market share Customers Radius Publicly listed 3.900 27 % 1.000.000 SEAS NVE net Private limited 1.800 13 % 400.000 SE NET Private limited 1.400 9 % 360.000 NRGI Private limited 700 5 % 210.000 ENIIG Private limited 700 5 % 383.000 Source: Energinet.dk datahub As seen from table 1, 4 out of 5 of the companies are private limited, meaning it is the customers who own parts of the companies. Only radius is publicly listed as it is owned solely by DONG Energy, which recently had its IPO. These companies are, not surprisingly, geographically located in and around the biggest cities in Denmark.