The tone of the debate was high two weeks ago when the spot price in southern Sweden shot up to SEK 8 per kilowatt hour. Ebba Busch blamed Germany and previous red-green politics. Magdalena Andersson hit back and accused the government of the new way of measuring prices; Nooshi Dadgostar spoke about exorbitant prices.
Even then, most things pointed to the fact that the high prices mostly traded for a few hours. Now we see that December as a whole will be cheaper than last year – this applies to all four electricity areas in the country.
– The price picture in southern Sweden is a little lower than last year. In electricity areas one and two in the north, the price has been only about a fifth of what it was last December, says Christian Holzt, electricity market analyst at Merlin & Metis.
Lowest prices in four years
SVT’s review of Nordpool’s statistics shows that for the entire year 2024, electricity prices were the lowest in four years – this applies to all four electricity areas in Sweden. August stands out with the lowest electricity prices in 20 years.
Throughout the year, the spot prices have been around 15-20 öre cheaper than in 2023, which for households with an electrically heated villa can mean 3-4 thousand kroner less in electricity costs than last year. If you have an apartment, the difference can be a thousand kroner.
– It has been warmer this year, we have had good rainfall and well-filled water reservoirs, says Jonas Stenbeck, private market manager at Vattenfall.
Other factors are that the transmission in the grid has increased somewhat, there have been quite a few major disruptions, which overall has resulted in moderate prices with few high peaks – this despite the fact that the Forsmark 3 nuclear reactor has been idle since the beginning of September due to unpredictable failure, where repairs drag out of time.
Prices have fluctuated a lot, with minus prices and a record of 8 kroner in southern Sweden in mid-December.
Lower than most EU countries
In October, Svenska kraftnät introduced a new flow-based way of measuring electricity prices, which has received some criticism. Compared to the rest of the EU, Sweden has had lower electricity prices than almost everyone else – this also applies in southern Sweden, In Germany, Denmark and the Baltics, the average electricity price has approached one kroner, when in Sweden we had 57 öre in the far south, and 28 öre in the north.
– From a European perspective, Sweden has low electricity prices, this also applies to southern Sweden, so I do not share the image that Sweden would have a bad or “dismantled” electricity system, says Christian Holzt.