In 1998, the Danish Parliament (Folketinget) decided to split up the Danish electricity sector into generation, transport and sale of electricity. The TSO (Transmission System Operator) was asked to provide the necessary coordination of the required research and development in this area. This led to the establishment of the ForskEL-programme.

ForskEL is a PSO-financed research programme, the purpose of which is to support the development and integration of environmentally friendly power generation technologies for grid connection, and each year a call for funding is implemented. The programme budget is determined by the Danish Minister for Climate and Energy, who also approves the focus areas of the annual calls on Energinet.dk's recommendation. PSO is short for Public Service Obligation.

Adjustments and updates
The ForskEL-programme continuously develops in order to adapt to current re-quirements. This means that input received from users and other energy research programmes are implemented in the programme to the extent possible. Similarly, recommendations made in evaluations carried out, such as the report prepared by the Alexandra Institute A/S in 2009, are also integrated. The results of the evaluation are described in the Institute's report, which can be seen under 'Read more' together with the associated appendix report.