There are major investments ahead of us, says Eva Vitell to TT.
In the short term, there is no danger. But the challenges are piling up in the future, according to a new power balance report from Svenska Kraftnät.
We are managing the current situation and as this report indicates, the coming winter. But further ahead, when electricity consumption increases, the power situation will also become more challenging, says Vitell.
Bottlenecks in the grid
The amount of electricity needed during the winter depends on the temperature. But also on how flexible Swedish households and companies are when consuming their electricity.
No new planned electricity production - i.e. not wind and solar power - is expected by Svenska Kraftnät in the next five years, according to the report. And the expansion of weather-dependent power sources will not match the increased electricity consumption expected with all electrification - particularly in industry - that is planned.
Another challenge is all the bottlenecks in the power grid, which limit the possibility of providing southern Sweden with the large power production in the north.
So there is every reason to emphasize that we need to add production in southern Sweden, says Vitell.
The oil-fired old Karlshamn plant - previously the last resort to avoid rationing and disconnection - has not been available since March this year, as the law on the power reserve ceased to apply.
Now we are in a situation where we need something else, says Vitell.
Preparing procurement
The government has initiated the process of obtaining clearance for a new ordinance from the EU and Svenska Kraftnät is preparing a procurement.
We hope that the coming ordinance will enable participation of resources that meet our needs. We are open to all who can offer this type of facility, says Vitell.
The hope is that the strategic reserve will be available already in the winter of 2025-2026.
It is our absolute ambition that the procurement will be completed then. But it assumes that there are existing facilities that we can procure.
Batteries and energy storage are another important issue ahead.
Last winter was unusually mild. The so-called peak hour - i.e. the hour when Sweden has the highest electricity consumption during the year - occurred at 8-9 am on January 13. Then the consumption was 22,500 MWh/h.
This is the lowest peak hour that has been measured since the measurements began to be made almost 30 years ago and significantly lower than the peak hour in the winter of 2023-2024, which was at 25,200 MWh/h.
Southern Sweden occasionally imports electricity from interconnected neighboring countries when Swedish electricity does not cover consumption. The problem is that it can become very expensive and in the worst case not possible if the country also struggles with unusually high demand for electricity.
Source: Svenska Kraftnät
