Small Systems, Smarter Grids: What Denmark Can Teach U.S. Utilities

By Greennex Frontier

The Big Grid, Fragmented Logic

Across the U.S., the energy transition is speeding up — but the systems managing it are struggling to keep up. Distributed renewables are rising. EVs are multiplying. Smart thermostats and batteries are everywhere. Yet most utilities still rely on slow, one-directional control systems, designed for centralized fossil generation, not dynamic, distributed supply.

The result is a grid where billions of dollars of flexibility potential sit untapped — because there’s no orchestration layer to unlock it.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, one of Europe’s smallest countries has quietly turned its entire national grid into a real-time coordination engine, capable of balancing more than 50% variable renewable electricity, minute by minute, without losing stability or control.

That country is Denmark. And what it lacks in geographic size, it makes up for in system logic.

A Small Country That Thinks Big on Integration

Denmark didn’t wait until its grid became chaotic to digitize. Since the early 2000s, as wind power surged from under 10% to over 50% of annual electricity, Denmark made a deliberate choice: build a digital-first grid designed for responsiveness, not just reliability.

It created the institutional coordination between regulators, market operators, and innovation funds to let experimentation thrive — and then made it count in real markets. The result is a grid that doesn’t just tolerate decentralization — it depends on it.

Instead of betting everything on scale, Denmark bet on software. And instead of treating DERs as backup players, it wrote them into the main script.

The Innovation Layer: Turning Infrastructure into Intelligence

Denmark’s grid innovation isn’t anchored in large-scale buildouts — it’s in how smaller, smarter systems are coordinated. This is where a new generation of Danish startups is building not just tools, but templates for the distributed grid logic the U.S. increasingly needs.

Aegir Insights, based in Copenhagen, is helping rewire how offshore wind is financed and built. Rather than developing turbines or hardware, Aegir provides a SaaS platform that enables developers, governments, and investors to optimize project siting, auction strategy, and long-term returns — all based on market signals and grid constraints. Their clients aren’t asking what’s technically possible; they’re asking what’s economically viable. That kind of planning fluency is still rare in U.S. markets. Backed by Seaya Andromeda and Climentum Capital, Aegir raised €8.5M in Series A funding to accelerate platform development.

“Denmark is showing what grid intelligence actually looks like in practice — not just big tech, but tight integration,” said Javier Santiso, Managing Partner at Seaya Andromeda. “These aren’t moonshots. They’re operating models that U.S. cities will need to study — and soon replicate.”

OKTO GRID tackles an older problem: how to modernize aging infrastructure without replacing it. Their plug-and-play IoT modules allow utilities to remotely monitor and manage transformers and distribution assets — no shutdown required. In markets like the U.S., where aging substations and transformers are a known risk, this kind of retrofit-ready digitization offers a path forward without billion-dollar rebuilds. With €3M in seed funding from Elewit and Rockstart, OKTO GRID is already working with European DSOs to extend grid life while enabling new flexibility.

On the customer-facing edge, Hybird Energy is quietly turning overlooked commercial buildings into grid assets. Their AI-powered platform combines a smart control panel with a cloud-based interface, giving small and mid-sized businesses real-time insight into electricity, water, and heating use — and automated response to price and load signals. It’s demand-side flexibility without expensive energy retrofits.

“The grid of the future won’t be built from scratch — it’ll be made visible, responsive, and monetized through software,” said Emil Ingerslev, co-founder of Hybird Energy. “That’s how small systems start to unlock big flexibility — not in five years, but right now.”

Together, these startups reflect a distinctly Danish approach: one that doesn’t bet on scale alone, but on smart coordination. It’s a reminder that grid modernization isn’t just about new hardware — it’s about building connective tissue between the systems we already have.

U.S. Capital Is Catching On — Quietly

While Denmark’s flexibility economy is local, its system logic is resonating far beyond Europe — including in the U.S., where a new wave of venture investors is starting to bet on asset-light climate software that mirrors the Danish model.

Firms like Energy Impact Partners (EIP), Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Congruent Ventures are actively investing in coordination layers — startups that orchestrate electrons, rather than generate them.

Recent moves include:

• Virtual Peaker, a Kentucky-based DER aggregation platform, raised $16.6 million with support from Emerson Collective and EIP, citing European grid models as product inspiration.

• Leap, based in California, secured $33.5 million to expand its grid services trading platform, which enables distributed assets to respond to price signals in real time.

• Tibber, the Nordic smart energy retail app, began a U.S. rollout in 2024 with backing from Founders Fund, citing a need for “smarter orchestration logic” in DER-heavy states.

What these companies share — and what excites investors — is the ability to monetize coordination: real-time control, without owning hardware. It’s the Denmark playbook applied to fragmented, fast-growing U.S. grids.

As U.S. electrification deepens, this model isn’t just being noticed. It’s being funded.

Lessons for the U.S.: The Power of Planning for Decentralization

Denmark’s grid strategy isn’t built on megaprojects or moonshots. It’s built on making thousands of small, flexible decisions — every day — with the tools and governance to support them.

The key takeaways?

• Digital infrastructure unlocks scale. Denmark’s national data layer gives startups and utilities a shared foundation to build on. In contrast, U.S. DERs often operate in data silos that make coordination costly or impossible.

• Market integration, not just grid integration, matters. Flexibility is monetized in Denmark, not just managed. And it’s treated as a core service, not an emergency tool.

• Designing for interoperability early prevents vendor lock-in later. Through open protocols like USEF, Denmark ensures that new technologies can plug into the grid as functional participants — not black boxes.

• Geography isn’t destiny — mindset is. Denmark may be small, but its model scales. Not by force, but by logic.

Final Note: When the System Is the Innovation

Denmark didn’t invent the cheapest battery or the biggest wind turbine. But it may have built the most intelligent operating system for a modern grid — one where data, flexibility, and coordination work in real time, at every level of the system.

For U.S. cities and states standing at the edge of a decentralized future, the lesson is clear: you don’t need a bigger grid first. You need a smarter one. Denmark’s blueprint won’t copy-paste onto the U.S. — but its logic might just be the smartest starting point yet.ust a vendor. It’s an interface. that know how to use them.