Households on district heating in Denmark should expect higher bills next year. Ten heating companies have announced planned increases of between 6 and 10 per cent for 2027, according to the broadcaster TV2, and they point to rising energy prices as the reason. The Danish word for the system, fjernvarme, translates literally as far heating.
District heating is common in Danish cities. Instead of each building running its own boiler, a central plant heats water and sends it through pipes to the homes and offices connected to the network. Because the plants run on a mix of biofuels, gas, oil and electricity, their costs move with the wider energy market. When those fuels become more expensive, the plants face higher bills of their own, and that extra cost ends up in the fees their customers pay.
The steepest warning so far comes from Præstø in southern Zealand. The local supplier, Præstø Fjernvarme, has said its prices could go up by as much as 40 per cent next year, after it cut them two years running. For its customers, the warning marks a sharp reversal after a period of falling bills. The company is in the middle of a shift towards electric heating, but its chair, Morten Møller Christensen, told TV2 that a shortage of capacity means it has been “forced to go back to gas” for now.
The heating warnings come as living costs edge up more broadly. According to Statistics Denmark, consumer prices rose 2.2 per cent in the year to September, up from 2.0 per cent in August, with higher fuel costs in transport the main driver. The government’s 2027 budget proposal, presented on 9 October, sets aside 850 million kroner for electrification and district heating as part of a push to phase out gas and oil heating. That money is aimed at the same shift away from fossil fuels that Præstø Fjernvarme is trying to make.
More increases may follow. Several district heating companies have not yet published their fees for 2027, so the number of suppliers raising prices could grow in the coming weeks. The warnings arrive as the heating season begins: the Danish Meteorological Institute expected night frosts across the country this week after central Jutland recorded frost on Sunday night, before temperatures climb to around 17C later in the week.
