— At 00 last night we went up to minimum load, it lasted until 08:30, says Björn Magnusson, communications manager at Karlshamnsverket in Blekinge.
Minimum load means an effect of 40 megawatts, he says. That was what the plant now sent into the power lines. It is the first time that the Karlshamnsverket had to be put into use to save the electricity supply.
“Warm readiness”
There is now a state of emergency until December 16 at 11:59 p.m. Until then, the work can be called in, and the situation can of course also be changed based on needs.
— We have “hot readiness”. This means that we can start in two hours. It is Svenska Kraftnät that controls the need.
In total, Karlshamnsverket has a capacity of 660 megawatts, of which 562 of this is included in the Swedish power reserve, he says.
— We are the only ones who are the Swedish power reserve.
Karlshamnsverket is fired with fossil heavy oil. The plant has two blocks, which can produce 330 megawatts each. If a block is running at full capacity, it uses 70,000 heavy oil per hour.
Record levels
The electricity prices in the two electricity areas in northern Sweden rose to an average price of SEK 4.19 per kilowatt hour on Tuesday, according to pricing on the Nord Pool electricity exchange. It is only eight cents below the historical highs from December 1 this year.
At the same time, electricity prices also rose in the two electricity areas in southern Sweden, up to SEK 4:79 per kilowatt hour. This can be compared with the record levels at the end of August of SEK 5:18 in electricity area 3 and SEK 5:77 in electricity area 4.