Ørsted says fossil fuel units restart does not change carbon-neutrality goal

Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED) announced on Saturday that because of the European energy crisis, the Danish authorities have ordered the company to resume operations of close to 1 GW of power station units relying on fossil fuels.

The offshore wind major confirmed in a statement that it will comply and added that this does not change its objective to become carbon-neutral by 2025 because the order concerns the period through June 2024.

"We will, of course, comply with the Danish authorities’ order, and we'll now begin preparing and maintaining the units as well as securing the staffing necessary to operate them. We still believe that we, as a society, must phase out the use of gas, oil, and coal as soon as possible, but we're in the middle of a European energy crisis, and we will, of course, contribute to ensuring the electricity supply to the best of our ability,” commented Mads Nipper, Group President and CEO of Ørsted.

The order relates to the coal-fired unit 3 at Esbjerg Power Station (370 MW) and unit 4 at Studstrup Power Station (360 MW), as well as the oil-fired unit 21 at the Kyndby Peak Load Plant (260 MW). The two latter units have already been decommissioned, while the Esbjerg Power Station was supposed to go through this procedure next March.

Ørsted stressed that it will need time to get everything in place because the operation of these units requires training highly specialised workers. It intends to get the units ready for operation as soon as possible.

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