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Interview T he past year will not go down in the history books as an easy one for Dong Energy. In fact, it is likely to go down as one of the company's most difficult. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) in 2012 were DKK8.6 billion (£1 billion), down from DKK13.8 billion in 2011. Meanwhile, it was reported in June 2013 that net debt had grown to DKK41.7 billion. Dong's decision to go green across Europe – with a drive to generate more electricity from wind and burn more biomass in its fossil fuel plants in Denmark – saw its prices climb, while in the rest of Europe the big generators, particularly those in Germany, made use of cheap coal prices. So while Dong was investing in green, lowcarbon generation, which produces relatively expensive electricity, its rivals in the Nord Pool were able to sell cheap electricity from coal. To compound matters, Dong Energy's upstream division was also hit with falling returns from its Danish North Sea oil and gas reserves. Brent Cheshire, the UK country chairman for Dong Energy, has been with the company since it expanded into the UK in 2004 (he helped establish its first office here and was its first employee in the UK) and is well placed to see how the financial difficulties of Dong Energy could have affected its British investment plans. He reveals that, without a significant injection of capital into the company, the big offshore wind projects were at risk of not happening. These plans, and the short-term financial stability of Dong Energy, were given a substantial boost earlier this month when an investment of DKK11 billion was agreed from Goldman Sachs and two Danish pension funds, ATP and PFA. "If we hadn't had a mechanism where we brought in those new funds, projects we would have liked to have done in the UK would not have happened," says C heshire. "So things will happen in the UK and a lot of those funds will flow into the UK. "We've come from nowhere to £5.5 billion. That is very significant for a company of our size and we're now becoming a very big part of Dong Energy full stop." The UK has certainly become a focal point for Dong Energy and the company has numerous projects here. It owns a 50 per cent stake in the 630MW London Array windfarm, and it is the major stakeholder in the arrow, B Burbo Bank, Gunfleet Sands and Walney offshore windfarms. Dong Energy also owns the 270MW Lincs offshore windfarm, and the 389MW West of Duddon Sands offshore windfarm currently under construction. Cheshire explains the reason that about half of the group's capital expenditure in coming years is flowing into the UK is down to Dong Energy realising its big ambitions here. "What you see in terms of our 2020 strategy is that we currently have 1.7GW installed in terms of wind, but by the end of the decade our plan is to have about 6.5GW." UTILITY WEEK | 18th - 24th October 2013 | 9