The property arm of Denmark’s largest pension fund ATP is donating three large diesel generators to Ukraine, where power supplies have been severely disrupted by Russian bombing.

ATP Real Estate said the surplus generators had been left over from its purchase and development of the former headquarters of Nordic Bank Nordea, and that each of the 10-ton generators had the capacity to power a 5,000sqm hospital, or 900 Danish households.

Bo Schoppe, senior project manager at ATP Real Estate, said: “When you follow the situation in Ukraine, it’s hard not to feel an urge to help if you can.”

The opportunity had arisen when the firm found the three generators in Christianshavn in Copenhagen, which were surplus to requirements. The machines had previously served as emergency power systems for Nordea’s data centre.

ATP Real Estate said it had worked with a number of charitable and other organisations and companies to get the generators uninstalled, out of a basement and off to Ukraine, including the Rambøll Foundation, Coromatic, LE34, Delfi Technologies and a large number of Danish Rotary clubs.

Coromatic, a specialist in emergency power, had helped to convert the generators and prepare them for installation in Ukraine, and Rambøll had acted as a consultant and provided a large grant for transporting the generators to Ukraine.

Søren Staugaard Nielsen, chief executive of the Rambøll Foundation, said: “Winter is really setting in in Ukraine, and every contribution counts towards helping the many vulnerable people who lack light and heat.”

ATP Real Estate said each generator, built in 2009, used 0.25 litres of diesel per kWh, or around 250 litres per hour at full power, and had been so far only run for a total of between 114 and 117 hours.