Ramboll continues with the green transition of Denmark's power transmission system

By 2035, the power consumption in Denmark is expected to increase by more than 100%, according to the Danish Energy Agency. The primary cause of this skyrocketing consumption is the electrification of the heat and transport sectors as well as large data centres.

The increasing consumption makes great demands on the ability of the power transmission system to transport the power in a stable and efficient manner from large solar power plants and offshore wind farms all the way to the consumers. One hundred substations located around the country play a leading role. They enable the power to find its way through the system from inbound to outbound cables. Today, they are outdated and face extensive upgrading and retrofitting to increase capacity and avoid that they become bottlenecks for the transmission of green wind and solar energy to the consumers.

Last year, Ramboll was the first consultancy company to win the owner’s engineer contract with Energinet for the retrofit of the first three substations in Zealand. The company has now secured another contract for the construction of three new substations in Zealand, Falster, and Jutland. The project is part of a €56 million framework contract that Energinet awarded to Ramboll in 2020. The new construction and modernisation of the substations must ensure that the power transmission system has the capacity needed to distribute more green electricity in the future.

"The new contract is strategically important to us," says John Ammentorp, Country Market Director for Ramboll's energy division in Denmark. “A crucial goal in our new strategy is to become a global industry leader in the energy transition and grow significantly in green energy consulting. We will have 20 experts working full time on the mentioned substation projects over the next 3.5 years. This means that we can bring more competencies as well as our nationwide setup into play”, he says.

The project is the continuation of a gigantic green transition of the power transmission system. Over the next 10-15 years, approximately 100 Danish substations must be retrofitted or built at a total consultancy fee of some €130 million.