Updated 18.22 | Published 17.49
New Year’s Day offers real cold and heavy snowfall.
SMHI has issued both orange and yellow warnings – then the risk of power outages increases.
– When wet and heavy snow falls on the trees, then in the worst case they can break and pull both wires and poles with them, says Jonathan Björck, press manager at Ellevio.
The new year is expected to begin with proper cold and also offers large amounts of precipitation. SMHI has issued both yellow and orange warnings for wind in combination with snowfall.
Around the areas around Lake Vänern, up to 50 centimeters of snow can fall in places.
The strong New Year’s storms also have a major impact on the electricity grid, with the risk of several power outages.
– It’s a serious storm that’s going into New Year’s Eve and it’s going to create some problems, says Jonathan Björck, press manager at Ellevio.
When the heavy and wet snow falls on trees, they can be bent or, in the worst case, completely broken off, and branches that are normally far from the wires can then come into contact with the power lines.
– Trees that snap can take both wires and entire poles with them. For 20 years, we have worked to replace a number of percent of the electricity grid with cables in the ground to remove this type of risk. But we still have between 15-20 percent of the network left and that’s where the problem arises, says Björck.
The greatest risk of power outages is in the areas out in the countryside where there are still wires in the air, but during Christmas, areas with already buried power cables were also affected by several outages.
– We are a bit unlucky that this type of error occurred at the same time as we also had weather problems. It’s clear that it’s extra special when you’re at home and have to celebrate Christmas or New Year than other days of the year, says Björck.
Prepare and be prepared
Ahead of the New Year’s weekend, preparedness has now been increased in the event of more electrical problems.
– In practice, this means that we tell more people to simply be ready to work. It is done in different stages and if necessary, we have an emergency stage and then it is all on deck.
Björck explains that even if the conditions with extra staff both in operations centers and on the ground are good, there may be a certain amount of waiting before any power outages are resolved during the storm.
– Our repairmen often have to travel on unplowed small roads and pulsate in deep snow along the lines to locate the fault, so it takes a very long time, everything must be done in a safe way as well.
He believes that it is difficult for individual households to protect themselves against the outages themselves, but if you know that you live in an area where there are usually outages in this type of weather, it can be good to have some preparedness.
– Bottle up some extra water and make sure you have some candles, matches and batteries at home. Keep a cool head and don’t open the fridge and freezer unnecessarily as it stays cold in there. The vast majority who live in these areas are very good at this, says Björck.