Energi Danmark fined for capacity hoarding on Nordic intraday (2018)
Energi Danmark accepted a fine of DKK 750,000 for ten counts of capacity hoarding on the Nordic intraday market in 2015, and the State Prosecutor for Serious Economic and International Crime confiscated DKK 354,000 of revenue from the counts. The Danish Utility Regulator had referred the case in March 2018.
On this page
The decision
- Authority
- Danish Utility Regulator (Forsyningstilsynet) (DUR), Denmark
- Published
- 7 December 2018
- Participants
- Energi Danmark A/S
- Commodity
- Electricity
- Market
- Nordic intraday wholesale electricity market, cross-zonal capacity
- Conduct period
- 2015
- REMIT
- Article 5 (Market manipulation)
- Type of conduct
- Capacity hoarding
- Penalty
- DKK 750,000 fine plus DKK 354,000 confiscated revenue (DKK 1,104,000 in total)
- Status
- Final
What the regulator found
Forsyningstilsynet, the Danish Utility Regulator, announced on 7 December 2018 that Energi Danmark A/S had accepted a fine of DKK 750,000 (about EUR 100,000) for ten counts of manipulating part of the Nordic wholesale electricity market in 2015. The regulator had referred the case to the State Prosecutor for Serious Economic and International Crime in March 2018, on a suspected breach of Article 5 of REMIT.
The practice is described as capacity hoarding: Energi Danmark traded with itself on interconnectors, which excluded other trades and hindered competition. The regulator says this could create misleading or artificial prices on the intraday market. The announcement does not name the interconnectors, the bidding zones or the dates of the ten counts beyond the year 2015.
The outcome
The prosecutor set the fine, and Energi Danmark accepted it. The prosecutor also confiscated DKK 354,000 (about EUR 47,000) in revenue from the ten counts. The two amounts together are DKK 1,104,000. The announcement does not say how either figure was calculated.
The regulator's director general, Carsten Smidt, said the size of the fine and its handling by the police and the prosecutor sent a clear signal that capacity hoarding can be punishable under criminal law. The regulator noted that ACER had issued a guidance note on capacity hoarding on 22 March 2018, and said that a second case against a different market participant, for similar conduct on the intraday market, was still under police investigation.
This account rests on the regulator's announcement. The prosecutor's fine notice was not located for this review, and the announcement gives no fuller penalty calculation.
For a surveillance function
The regulator linked the self-trades to other participants' inability to use interconnector capacity and to misleading or artificial intraday prices. It presented the fine and confiscation as a signal that capacity hoarding can be criminally punishable. In its later 2025 case announcement, it cited this earlier fine as an aggravating circumstance.
Sources
- Forsyningstilsynet, Energi Danmark pays fine for manipulation with the electricity market, 7 December 2018 (Press release, in English)
- Forsyningstilsynet, Energi Danmark betaler bode for manipulation af elmarkedet, 28 February 2025 (Press release, in Danish)
- ACER, overview of REMIT sanction decisions (ACER register)
Sources read on 27 October 2026. This page restates what the authority published and adds no finding of its own. A decision under appeal is not final, and its status may have changed since: check the source before relying on it.