Santiago Sebastián
October 6th, 2022

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The cost is going up (photo: Pixabay)

The Capital Region’s utility provider, HOFOR, has raised the price of biogas and natural gas in the city due to the European energy crisis.

As of October 1, the cost for a typical customer has increased from about 16,000 kroner to around 26,000 kroner per year, including subscription, taxes and VAT.

READ ALSO: Mayor left out as Copenhagen lands historic budget agreement

300,000 impacted
The price hike will impact both businesses and private customers.

HOFOR provides gas to almost 300,000 people in Copenhagen.

Read more about the price hike here (in Danish)

Gas leak investigation
Copenhagen police are investigating gas leaks in the Baltic Sea and are not ruling anything out in advance.The investigation into the Nord Stream 2 explosion is in very preliminary stages and the police are co-operating with relevant authorities in Denmark and abroad. The government has yet to point the finger at anyone in the case.

Greener taxis at CPH Airport

More than half of taxis at Copenhagen Airport are zero-emission cars that run on electricity or hydrogen. Last summer, less than one in four taxis going to and from Copenhagen Airport were zero-emission cars, but today the figure has more than doubled to 53 percent. Zero-emission taxis have priority in the queue at Copenhagen Airport with up to a 25-minute head start over diesel and petrol taxis.

No lights on Øresund Bridge
The lighting on the Øresund Bridge will be switched off almost completely during autumn and winter to save energy. During the Christmas season the pylon lights will only be switched on for four hours during certain times, according to Øresund Bridge operators. The lights will be on for Advent Sundays, Christmas holidays and official flag days. Tunnel and safety lighting for navigation and aviation will remain on at all times. 

An icon restored

The iconic Amaliehaven garden park will be restored to its condition when it opened almost 40 years ago. The work will cost 65 million kroner and commenced on October 1, with an estimated completion date of December 2023.  The garden will be closed to visitors for the duration of the renovation.

Pool renovation off the deep end
The controversial renovation of the Frederiksberg swimming pool, one of the oldest in the country, has resumed. Originally due to be completed in May 2021, the delay is due to the municipality suing the contractor because it considers that the contractor failed to meet deadlines and quality requirements. The work was initially budgeted at 70 million kroner, but costs have now reached 100 million kroner.

Too many Jutlanders in Parliament?

Three politicians from the capital have described the current distribution of seats in Parliament that favours sparsely populated areas of Denmark as being unfair and unequal. Winning a seat in Parliament requires more votes in Copenhagen and the surrounding municipalities than in the rest of the country. Candidates from Copenhagen needed 22,620 votes to win a seat in Parliament in the last election, compared to 12,642 in Bornholm and 19,284 in north Jutland.

Air pollution on the agenda

Enhedslisten (EL) and Socialistisk Folkeparti (SF) are looking to crack down harder on pollution from cars and wood-burning stoves in Copenhagen. Although the latest report on air pollution in the municipality shows a decrease in harmful particles, there are strong indications that the energy crisis will lead to residents increasingly firing up their wood-burning stoves this winter. SF and EL want to expand the city’s environmental zone to force all diesel cars to have a particulate filter to enter the zone. And they are asking the government to improve the possibility of dismantling wood-burning cookers in big cities, where many people live together.