Geothermal compensation dispute from Viborg reaches Supreme Court

A compensation dispute over a failed geothermal project in Viborg will be heard by Denmark’s Supreme Court, DR reports. The Compensation Association for the District Heating Case has received legal aid to appeal after losing at the Western High Court last year.

The project in Kvols, which was stopped 14 years ago, left district heating consumers with a bill running into millions.

Ole Jespersen, chairman of the Compensation Association for the District Heating Case, said he was pleased that the dispute could now be considered by the country’s highest court.

“We feel that a very, very serious injustice has been committed against district heating consumers in Viborg,” Jespersen said.

Consumers had originally agreed that 11 million to 13 million kroner could be spent on the project. The final cost was 165 million kroner, which was passed on to local district heating customers.

More than 1,900 district heating consumers and two housing associations originally sued the board of Viborg District Heating. The case concerned the board’s decision to pass on the costs of an unsuccessful drilling project in the village of Kvols, where the aim had been to extract hot water from deep underground.

Fourteen years later, several former board members have either died or become too old to continue fighting the case in court. The housing associations have also withdrawn from the compensation association.

Jespersen nevertheless said the case was far from outdated.

“It is about our sense of justice. We feel that we have been put on the chopping block and financially slaughtered for a project there that we never approved,” he said.