The red brick building with its gray cooling towers in Malmö’s northern harbor symbolizes Sweden’s preparation for an uncertain future.
The decommissioned power plant located near the Juutinrauma beach was supposed to be dismantled and transferred abroad to new ownership. Then the war in Ukraine changed Sweden’s defense policy and forced the country to reassess the security of its energy production.
Sweden’s capital, Stockholm, is closer to St. Petersburg than Berlin, and Sweden, with a population of 10 million, has been on alert since Russia annexed Crimea ten years ago.
Now Sweden has a Russian president who has become more and more daring as a neighbor Vladimir Putinbut the newest member of the defense alliance NATO says it must be prepared if some kind of conflict spreads through the Baltics.
The Swedish grid operator wants to return the power plant known as the Juutinrauma power plant located in Malmö to operational readiness, so that the lights will stay on in Malmö, Sweden’s third largest city, if there is a shock to Sweden’s electricity production that causes widespread power outages.
“I hope we don’t end up in a situation where we have to start the power plant,” says the power plant manager Mikael Nilsson. “But it’s really reassuring when you can trust that we’re ready for action if needed.”
The electricity grid is prone to sabotage
When the Cold War ended, Sweden believed in the permanence of peace and reduced its armed forces. Now, in addition to its armed forces, it must strengthen the civilian infrastructure, i.e. ports, roads, railways, hospitals and shelters
Sweden’s geographical location makes the country’s energy supply, which is based on nuclear, hydro and wind power, particularly vulnerable. A power line network of approximately 16,000 kilometers connects the power plants located in northern Sweden to the large cities located in southern Sweden.
Power lines often run through dense forests, and they spread over an area that covers about two-thirds of Sweden’s surface area.
Compared to many other European countries, Sweden’s electricity grid is more susceptible to sabotage, which is why Sweden needs to be prepared for malfunctions, says Vera van Zoestwho is an assistant professor at the Swedish National Defense University.
“Critically important infrastructure, such as the power grid, is often the main target during war,” says van Zoest.
Van Zoest mentions Ukraine. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, more than half of all power plants in Ukraine have been damaged by Russian strikes, according to the World Bank. Cities in Ukraine have gone dark and people have been left without water and heat during harsh winters.
Doubt.
The gas bubbles erupted on the sea surface in the fall of 2022, when an unexplained leak was detected in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
PHOTO: Danish Defense Forces
The expansion of the war into Europe is not the only concern. The mysterious explosions that took place two years ago cut off gas supplies in the Nord Stream gas pipelines that run at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The explosions sent natural gas prices soaring and underscore the threat of hybrid warfare, which involves stealth operations and strikes whose perpetrators can remain unclear.
The energy sector is preparing
“No one knows how much time we have,” says the Minister of Civil Protection Carl-Oskar Bohlin. According to Bohlin, the urgency of strengthening the electricity grid is increased by the fact that southern Sweden is one of the regions where the difference between electricity consumption and production is the largest in Europe.
In Sweden, the goal is that by 2028 there will be around a thousand energy professionals who can be called upon to secure the energy supply. The system is based on compulsory civil service, which was part of Sweden’s total national defense during the Cold War, alongside conscription. The fences of energy plants are strengthened and their supervision is enhanced.
Malmö is not the only city that can take care of its electricity supply independently of the main grid. The backbone network operator Swedish Power Grid says that it has plans on how to secure the electricity supply of Stockholm, Gothenburg and other key areas.
“It’s about building the ability to operate normally in times of crisis,” says the operator’s security director Eric Nordman.
In total, the Swedish government budgeted approximately 5.5 billion kroner, or just under half a billion euros, for civil defense for the year 2024. The amount is almost three times the allocation for 2021, i.e. the time before Moscow sent its tanks to Ukraine. In April, the government granted an additional allocation of 385 million kroner, or more than 30 million kroner.
The funding is still less than ten billion kroner, or just under one billion euros, which is the Swedish Security Service’s estimate of how much money is needed to put the civil defense in order.
“It doesn’t matter how strong the armed forces are built. If we lack the support we need from civil defense, we won’t be able to carry out the tasks that are required of us,” says the commander of the Swedish Defense Forces Michael Byden.
“This is a broad mission.”
Model from Finland
The challenges are not unique to Sweden. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen says that other countries should follow the example of Finland, which shares a border with Russia and has for decades built and maintained a strong civil defense and taught citizens to act during a national emergency.
Companionship.
President Alexander Stubbin and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson held a press conference on Wednesday in Stockholm.
PHOTO: Jani Korpela
Prime Minister of Sweden Ulf Kristersson has already noted it. “We have learned a lot from the events in Ukraine for very sad reasons,” Kristersson said at a press conference held on April 23 together with Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
“In a positive sense, we have also learned from Finland, not least in terms of preparedness and civil defense.”
Malmö’s 450 megawatt power plant runs on gas, but it can also burn diesel. The power plant is owned by a German energy company Uniper. Uniper decommissioned the power plant in December 2016, when electricity prices dropped so much that production was no longer profitable. In 2021, Uniper sold the power plant to a Dutch company PACO Holdingille.
When Russia increased naval activity in the Baltic last year and gained the upper hand in Ukraine, Svenska Kraftnät ordered Uniper to withdraw from the deal and return the power plant to operational readiness until the end of the decade.
As compensation, Svenska Kraftnät will pay compensation of up to 1.1 billion kroner, or about one hundred million euros, for restoring the power plant’s operational readiness. It is one of the first and largest Swedish state investments in energy security after Russia attacked Ukraine.
The power plant was built in 2009. During a quiet visit, the power plant’s manual controls, cables and pipe network seemed to be in perfect condition. Some of the structures were covered with scaffolding.
The work to restore the operational readiness of the power plant will intensify after the summer, when new turbine blades costing tens of millions of kroner will be installed. The power plant will be fully operational in 2025.
Nilsson believes that the power plant will remain in use by the electricity market after the end of the decade, when the current contract with Svenska Kraftnät for standby ends. “I don’t see the need for security of energy supply decreasing,” he says, adding: “On the contrary.”
The article by the news agency Bloomberg has been translated into Finnish by Juhana Rossi. Artificial intelligence has been used in the translation work.