Svenska kraftnat

COMPANY PROFILE

2015

Svenska kraftn채t

www.svk.se | +46 (0) 10 475 80 00

Connecting the people of Sweden Editorial: Ajuanne Payne

Tasked with the operational management of Sweden’s 15,000 km of transmission lines and ensuring electricity supply to the population, Svenska kraftnät are the state-owned public utility looking after the country’s electricity needs. With current yearly investments in maintenance and electricity interconnection projects at over EUR 430 million per year, the utility are expecting investments to total EUR 6.5 billion by the mid 2020’s. President and CEO, Mr Mikael Odenberg, tells us more about what the future holds for the Swedish national grid…

Svenska kraftnät (Swedish National Grid) is the stateowned public utility responsible for the security of electricity supply in Sweden. The government authority looks after the monitoring of Sweden’s national grid and ensures the balance between production and consumption across the country. Svenska kraftnät are also responsible for coordinating dam safety nationwide.

With a national grid to look after, inclusive of roughly 15,000 km of 400 and 220 kV

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transmission lines, substations and interconnectors, Svenska kraftnät’s main focus is on maintaining a reliable and safe electricity infrastructure for the country’s people. In order to achieve this, the utility’s operations centre on essential expansion planning, operational supervision and maintenance.

Established in 1992, today Svenska kraftnät has 550 employees with the majority based at the company’s Stockholm head office and operations centre.

HISTORY President and CEO, Mikael Odenberg, explains the history behind the founding of Svenska kraftnät: “in 1908 a governmental agency was formed in Sweden in order to exploit the hydro resources in the northern parts of Sweden and to electrify the country. In 1992 this Agency was unbundled.

“The electricity production facilities – mainly hydro and nuclear – and sales of electricity were put into a new state owned enterprise, Vattenfall AB. Management of the high voltage transmission

Svenska Kraftnat

system and the responsibility for the system operations (balancing the system) were transferred to a new governmental agency, named Svenska kraftnät (Swedish National Grid). “ Mr Odenberg’s background is mainly a political one, with experience as a Swedish MP and cabinet minister. In the mid-90s he was a party spokesman for energy affairs and heavily involved in the legislation concerning the deregulation of the Swedish electricity market that took place in 1996. He explains that “After resigning as Minister for Defence in 2007, the government appointed me as CEO of Svenska kraftnät in the spring of 2008.”

The Swedish electricity market was reformed at the turn of the year between 1995 and 1996. The main objective of the reform was to separate the sale and production of electricity from the transmission of electricity. This meant that

electricity trading and production was exposed to competition in the market place, while the network operations were retained as a natural monopoly and so easily regulated.

The ability of the Swedish government to regulate and supervise the network operations has been central to the Swedish electricity market’s ability to work well and prevent private network companies from abusing their monopoly positions.

AN INTEGRATED ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE “Sweden has a generation that is basically completely emissionfree.” Explains Mr Odenberg; “of the annual production of about 150 TWh, 40 percent each is from nuclear and hydro power and about 8 percent from wind power. The main producers are Vattenfall, E.ON and Fortum.

The Swedish National Grid

Transmission System Operator has no electricity production; however a few gas turbines are included in the agency’s socalled Disturbance Reserve.

With the electrical infrastructure consisting of 555,000 kilometers, or around 14 times around the world, of lines at all voltage levels – Svenska kraftnät’s responsibility is for the high-voltage transmission network and interconnectors. The national grid is well integrated with other nearby European countries, with regular import and exports of power, facilitated by physical links between the different grids.

“Today there are six HVDC links to Denmark, Germany, Poland and Finland and eight alternating current connections to Norway, Finland and Denmark.

“In 2012, Sweden’s total net exports comprised 20 TWh of electricity,” explains Mr

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Odenberg, “in 2013 10 TWh and 15 TWh in 2014. Between the hottest and coldest hours during the year consumption can differ markedly in the Swedish system.

The peak load during the year’s coldest hour could be upwards of 26,000 MWh, which makes the momentary demand of electricity imports from neighboring countries large - despite the good energy balance with much net exports of electricity on an annual basis.

“Sweden is well integrated with the rest of Europe. The 14 foreign connections have a combined capacity equivalent to 40 percent of domestic production capacity, allowing for great flexibility in times of shortage of electricity.

Security of supply for the Swedish end customers is 99.98 percent.”

The state-owned utility has seen extensive development over the past decade, significantly

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contributing to its ability to ensure that the people of Sweden have such a reliable security of supply.

STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS The utility also has an SEK 35 million (EUR3.8 million) yearly budget for research and development, a dedication to continued improvement in increasing efficiency and reducing environmental impact, on top of important investments it is making in other areas.

Mr Odenberg goes further, explaining that “Swedish kraftnät’s driving forces for transmission network investments are mainly three: the connection of renewable electricity generation, increased integration with the surrounding world and reinvestments in the aging network. Svenska kraftnät has also invested in new lines to allow for increased power input after upgraded nuclear power plants.”

In order to deal with the everincreasing demands for safe electricity distribution and high consumption, Svenska kraftnät are in the process of strengthening and refurbishing their electricity supply system. With nuclear power expected to be phased out by 2045, beginning in 2025, there is a need for increasing the efficiency at these facilities and a long term goal of replacing them with new, planable, power sources.

“Svenska kraftnät has the government’s task of enabling the expansion of renewable electricity production in the country,” Explains Mr Odenberg; “increased integration with the outside world presents both an opportunity for increased export of surplus electricity on a windy and warm summer’s day, but also the possibility to import electricity in a deficit situation - such as a cold winters day when the wind is not blowing.”

Svenska Kraftnat “The third driving force is about reinvestments in the existing network and the existing stations.

Many facilities in the Swedish national grid were built in the 1950s, which means that they need to be replaced.

Mr Odenberg states that “compared to ten years ago, Svenska kraftnät’s investments are more than tenfold – from 350 million SEK per year to more than 4 billion SEK per year. Until the mid-2020s Svenska kraftnät expects grid investments in the order of around 60 billion SEK. The extensive investments have also meant that the number of employees has doubled in six years. However, we expect that this necessary expansion increase will level off within a year.”

“The two largest ongoing investment projects consist of a

“The national grid is well integrated with other nearby European countries, with regular import and exports of power, facilitated by physical links between the different grids”

new connection, The SouthWest Link,” explains Mr Odenberg, “from middle to southern Sweden, and the new connection NordBalt to Lithuania. Upwards of 8 billion SEK is invested in the SouthWest Link to minimize the internal bottlenecks that sometimes occur between mid and south Sweden, thereby increasing transmission capacity to southern Sweden. NordBalt is an HVDC link to Lithuania. The aim is to integrate an emerging Baltic electricity market with the Nordic and European. At the same time the Baltic States’ security of supply strengthens.”

THE SOUTHWEST LINK PROJECT The objective of the SouthWest Link project is to reinforce the alternating current (AC) network, increase reliability and solve

SUCCESS RECORDS IN SCANDINAVIA Sirti entered the energy market in northern Europe in 2012 by winning, within the DTS Consortium, a Contract from Fingrid Oyj (the national power grid operator) for the construction of a 400/110 kV AC, 40 km long OHTL between Leväsjoki and Ulvila in Finland.

In July 2012 Sirti also won a tender competition called by Svenska Kraftnät for the construction of a 64km long, 300 kV DC OHTL between the towns of Nässjö and Värnamo in Sweden.

In March 2013 Sirti won another Contract from Svenska Kraftnät for the construction of a 40 km long, 400 kV AC OHTL between the towns of Skänninge and Tranås in Sweden.

THE COMPANY - Founded in 1921, Sirti is the Italian leading company in engineering and realization of turnkey telecommunications networks and systems. Through its operational structure of 4,000 employees Sirti is configured as a Global System Integrator.

The wide experience achieved, together with an in-depth technical expertise, allow Sirti to provide customers with well rounded technological advisory services as well as top tier technological solutions in different segments:Telecommunications, Energy Infrastructures, ICT, Railways Networks, Mobility, Security, Environment Monitoring and Safety.

Headquarter Sirti S.p.A. Via Stamira D’Ancona, 9 20127 Milan – Italy Tel. +39 02 9588.1 Fax +39 02 9588 3333 www.sirti.com

Thanks to the recognized competence in complex engineering problems, Sirti has developed "turnkey" solutions directed to Central and Local Public Administration, public or private providers of services and utilities, Local Agencies and large corporations.

While historically brought it’s technological footprint through the most remote regions of the world, today Sirti is active in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Libya, Qatar, Spain and Finland, Norwey and Sweden.

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Svenska Kraftnat the restrictions in transmission capacity to southern Sweden.

This will have the added bonus of limiting differences in electricity prices between regions.

The connection will also prepare for the planned investments and expansion of wind power, which is part of Swedish and European climate policy - a further demonstration of Svenska kraftnät’s dedication to investing in the growth and improvement of Sweden’s electricity infrastructure.

The SouthWest Link focuses primarily around the construction of a new AC link between Barkeryd and Hallsberg, with a second direct current (DC) link planned between Barkeryd and Skåne. Commissioning of the north branch takes place later this spring, with Eltel Networks TE AB winning the EUR 19 million contract. Full commissioning of the south branch is expected to take place in the beginning of 2016.

THE NORDBALT PROJECT For the NordBalt project, Svenska kraftnät are collaborating with LITGRID AB, electricity transmission systems operator for Lithuania. The

project involves the construction of an electricity interconnection between Klaipėda in Lithuania and Nybro in Sweden. Aimed at promoting trade in electricity between the Baltic and Nordic electricity markets and increasing security of supply in the region, the link is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

With financial backing from the European Union worth EUR 175 million, the projects itself is valued at a total of EUR 552 million, with funds being split between the construction activities and the reinforcement of Latvian electricity transmission systems.

The link will be a submarine DC connection with a voltage level of 300 kV and total power of roughly 700 MW.

RISING TO THE CHALLENGE Tasked with significantly reducing emissions and increasing efficiency and production capabilities where possible, Svenska kraftnät are facing busy times ahead. “To meet these challenges, Svenska kraftnät must work more efficiently and

smarter.”

“Extensive internal work has been ongoing to develop planning, work processes, procurement, performance monitoring, skills, et cetera. Recruiting and retaining skilled staff is also a key success strived for. Internal development and career opportunities within Svenska kraftnät is an important part of it, while the reconciliation of work and private life maintains prioritized.”

The utility will need the expertise and drive of its employees to build upon the successes they have already achieved. With the constant drive towards lower emissions and demand for electricity increasing exponentially, Svenska kraftnät have identified the need for strategic investments and better connections for the people of Sweden. Investing in existing and new infrastructure in Sweden, investing in its staff, while also taking steps towards further electricity interconnection, the utility is making the moves necessary to underpin the future of Sweden’s security of supply and reduce costs to end users

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