Denmark’s Wind Farms Exceed Electricity Demand

Generating power in Denmark has never been easier. The country’s 5 gigawatts of wind capacity can produce nearly 40% of the country’s instantaneous electricity demand. That’s the highest share of electricity generated by wind by any nation on Earth, according to Greentech Media.

According to the online news site’s latest report titled Ancillary Services at the Grid Edge: Distributed Energy Resources in Denmark, prices for ancillary services, which help accommodate high penetrations of variable generation, have been kept in check.

At the windiest of times, Denmark’s wind farms not only meet the country’s electricity demand, but actually exceed it. In fact, Denmark’s interconnections with Germany, Norway and Sweden enable it to offload its excess wind. This interconnectedness also allows for the exchange of more than 3 gigawatts of bulk power, but also more than 400 megawatts in ancillary services.

According to the report, "improvements in wind forecasting, the addition of new interconnections to other balancing areas, and 15-minute energy markets appear to have mitigated the need for increased volumes of downward reserves and regulation”.

With its high wind penetration, Denmark is an ongoing case study on a grid-edge future where intermittent renewables constitute a significant amount of generating capacity for a utility or even an entire nation, according to Greentech Media.