Sector Coupling in Practice — Danish & Polish District Heating (Webinar 3/3)

How do Danish district heating utilities turn a volatile electricity market into cheap, low-carbon heat? This third and final webinar in DBDH's Strategic Energy Collaboration in Poland series moves from market theory to daily operation — showing how small Danish utilities use electric boilers, heat pumps, CHP, and heat storage to follow the power market, and what Poland's own district heating transition looks like in 2026. In two Danish case studies, Lars Gullev (Gullev DH Advisory) walks through Billund District Heating — where multiple fuels, an electric boiler, and a new heat pump made the company one of Denmark's 8% cheapest, with over 52% of heat in 2025 produced by the e-boiler at an average cost of zero, financed entirely by selling grid-balancing services. Mark Roar Hintze from Assens Fjernvarme then shows how a 1960s consumer cooperative runs an unmanned, software-controlled sector-coupled plant: biomass CHP, wind, solar PV, heat pump, and a large electric boiler, dispatched automatically against five rolling forecasts (wind, sun, temperature, heat demand, spot price) from EMD's optimisation software. Finally, Jacek Kalina (Silesian University of Technology) presents lessons from the EU LIFE SET-HEAT project — a sober review of Poland's ~500 district heating systems, the ~190 billion PLN decarbonisation bill, and why the barriers there are regulatory, financial and organisational rather than technical. In this webinar: • What is sector coupling in district heating, and why does it matter? Connecting heat and power so a utility can sell, buy, or self-consume electricity depending on the spot price. • How can an electric boiler produce heat at near-zero cost? By earning grid-balancing revenue that offsets — and sometimes exceeds — the electricity bill. • Why is heat storage essential for power-market participation? Storage decouples heat production from heat demand, so plants can run when prices, not load, are favourable. • How is the Danish operation automated? Rolling forecasts feed optimisation software that starts and stops each unit and prepares the daily market bids. • What is holding back the Polish district heating transition? Regulatory uncertainty, weak ETS price signals, missing business models, and a financing gap make public support a must. — About DBDH DBDH (Danish Board of District Heating) is Denmark's leading district heating export organization. A private, not-for-profit member organization founded in 1978, DBDH represents the leading actors across the district energy value chain — utilities, manufacturers, advisors, authorities, and universities — and facilitates partnerships in more than 70 countries. Our mission is to promote district energy for a sustainable city transformation. Learn more: https://dbdh.org Read Hot|Cool, our international district energy magazine: https://dbdh.org/hot-cool-magazine/ Chapters 0:00 Welcome & webinar series intro 05:32 Today's program 06:52 Lars Gullev: the Billund District Heating case 14:36 Structure plan & investment assumptions 19:50 Electric boiler & the power market 24:33 Power market participation & key takeaways 28:48 Q&A: gas engine cost & e-boiler vs heat pump 31:56 Mark Roar Hintze, Assens Fjernvarme: a sector-coupled cooperative 35:35 Drivers in the Danish district heating sector 43:50 The power-market paradigm shift 48:19 Designing the sector-coupled system 52:28 EMD software & automated daily operation 01:01:03 Recommendations & the role of storage 01:03:41 Q&A: grid connection & capacity pricing 01:08:44 Jacek Kalina: lessons from the SET-HEAT project 01:11:23 The Polish district heating sector 01:16:11 Investment landscape: CHP, heat pumps, storage 01:21:50 Heat harvesting & the economics of transition 01:26:00 Strategic risks & conclusions 01:29:39 Closing: Polish–Danish collaboration #DBDH #DistrictHeating #DistrictEnergy #SectorCoupling #HeatPumps #ElectricBoiler #PowerMarket #EnergyStorage #Decarbonisation #GreenTransition