HJØRRING: The mayor of the municipality calls it an example of fear and warning. If Hirtshals Fjernvarmeselskab goes bankrupt, 2,700 customers - including three nursing homes - will immediately be without hot water and heat. Neither the mayor nor the Danish Energy Agency know what will happen to the supply if the company goes bankrupt. This is reported by Nordjyske.dk.
- If it were to happen, a solution must be found here and now. But I do not see that as likely that there are consumers who do not get hot water and heat. I know that there are several scenarios in play, but it would be completely wrong of me to reveal what they are, says Mayor Søren Smalbro (V), who will not answer whether the municipality will provide financial assistance in that case.
The Danish Energy Agency writes to Nordjyske that neither the municipality nor the state is obliged to take over the heat supply. However, the municipality has the option to do so. It is the Danish Energy Agency's immediate assessment that the Heat Supply Act does not contain rules that provide answers to how the bankruptcy of a district heating company should be handled.
Faulty speculation
DK Nyt has previously written about how six district heating companies - through Danish Cogeneration Capacity (DKVK) - speculated in consumers' heat prices. Hirtshals Fjernvarme ended up with a bill of 16 million DKK, which it initially tried to pay by increasing consumers' heat prices. The Danish Energy Agency decided that it was not allowed to do so.
That decision sent the district heating company into a restructuring to avoid bankruptcy.
Hirtshals Fjernvarme also tried to use the profits from the sale of free electricity CO2 quotas to pay the debt, but that solution was also rejected by the Danish Utilities Authority.
It has never happened before that a Danish district heating company has gone bankrupt, which is why it is also unknown to the Danish Energy Agency what will happen in such a case. While the company is under reconstruction, the supply of heat will continue as before.
The board of directors called an information meeting on the reconstruction on April 16. The district heating company writes in a press release that at the meeting there was broad support for the board "and a great desire to work on a solution that continues to ensure Hirtshals District Heating as an independent plant."
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