It has caused a stir both at Christiansborg, but also in the energy industry in general, that two employees at Energi Danmark, according to Jyllands-Posten, have earned bonuses of 250 and 300 million DKK, respectively. The two employees have thus had bonus schemes without upper limits, and thus profited from the skyrocketing energy prices that a large part of the world experienced last year.
But such bonuses are not appropriate, states Green Power Denmark's CEO Kristian Jensen. Together with the industry's EjerForbrugerforum, the trade organization will now clarify its recommendations for good corporate governance in order to eliminate the high bonuses for individual employees in companies that engage in wholesale energy trading.
The recommendations will include ensuring that bonus agreements are always equipped with limits or 'caps', as is already the case today in the vast majority of cases, Green Power Denmark states in a statement.
- Together with the chairman of EjerForbrugerForum, which is the organization for the elected management of cooperatively owned energy companies, I have agreed to expand the part of the recommendations that has to do with remuneration. The recommendations for good corporate governance in consumer-owned utility companies can easily stand to be clarified with regard to bonus agreements and their limitations. 2022 was unusual in every way, but it is probably not the last time that we will see ripples in the energy markets and the world order. We therefore have an urgent task in ensuring that it does not happen again, and that there is full transparency about remuneration in the industry, says CEO of Green Power Denmark Kristian Jensen.
I do not hope to see such large bonus sizes again
For a number of years, consumer-owned energy companies have worked according to a set of tailored recommendations for good corporate governance. The recommendations are similar to those that apply to listed companies and other forms of companies, but they are adapted to the form of ownership that is dominant in the groups that, among other things, operate the Danish electricity grid, build charging infrastructure for electric cars and have supplied most of Denmark with fiber networks. At the same time, some of the companies also operate wholesale energy trade on international markets.
The 23 recommendations, which apply from 2022 onwards, include areas such as active ownership, the composition and role of the board of directors, and remuneration policy. Until now, however, the recommendations on remuneration have primarily been aimed at the overall group management and the board of directors.
- Neither we nor our members have any desire to see such large bonus amounts again, so there is a need to look more closely at how the recommendations should include the bonus agreements of other senior employees in the parent groups and subsidiaries, says Kristian Jensen.
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