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The moderates demand answers from Energy and Digitization Minister Khashayar Farmanbar about how Sweden will manage the electricity supply in the coming winter.
The minister himself thinks that the opposition should stop with “hittepå conflicts”.
– The moderates are only running a pretend conflict in the media, says Khashayar Farmanbar.
During Monday morning, the Moderates announced that they had called Energy and Digitization Minister Khashayar Farmanbar (S) to the business committee’s meeting on Thursday, August 18. This is so that the minister will explain what measures the government plans to take to prevent households and businesses from being disconnected from the electricity grid this coming winter.
The announcement comes after Svenska kraftnät warned that the electricity shortage, especially in southern parts of the country, risks leading to the demand not being able to be met on certain days.
“It is in his place that he appears”
In a press release, Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M), chairman of the economic committee, writes that it is “remarkable that the energy minister seems to prioritize the election campaign” instead of tackling the problem.
– It is in his place that he appears in the economic committee and explains what urgent measures the government intends to take to reduce the risk of households and businesses being disconnected from the electricity grid in the middle of a bitterly cold winter, states Carl-Oskar Bohlin.
Khashayar Farmanbar, for his part, believes that the Moderates’ play is sneaky and criticizes the party for engaging in “hit-and-run conflicts”.
– Instead of taking responsibility for the country, they are just running a pretend conflict in the media, says Khashayar Farmanbar and continues:
– If they had been interested in solving the energy supply, they would not have been so remarkably quick to reject the cross-block talks that we proposed to solve the energy issue.
Would love to come there again
Khashayar Farmanbar says that he is satisfied with the investments made by the government to solve the energy supply during the year and highlights the assignments he gave to Svenska kraftnät to increase transmission capacity and to the Energy Agency on improved energy efficiency.
– I have been to the nutrition committee many times and I would be happy to go there again, more people need to take responsibility, but when I invite the Moderates to take a grown-up responsibility, they flatly say no. It is remarkable, he says.
When the Moderates turned down the government’s proposal, it was with reference to the fact that, according to the Moderates, the Social Democrats lack the conditions to get new nuclear power through, because their government background is against such a proposal.
The only way to get more nuclear power through, the Moderates’ representative decided, was to vote for an M-led government.
“If anyone is unreliable, it’s M”
Do you think it is completely unreasonable that the opposition sees your party as unreliable on the energy issue?
– If there are any who are unreliable, it is the Moderates, they have abandoned any number of agreements. And in order for investors and companies and industry to dare to invest in nuclear power, as we want to do, they must know that there is a long-term perspective in politics.
How big is the risk that people will be disconnected from the electricity grid this winter?
– According to Svenska kraftnät’s simulations, such situations can occur in six cases out of a hundred and it is clear that it is serious, in normal cases that number is usually zero. But that is exactly why we have taken lots of measures.
What, then, is the most important measure required to ensure that the power grid is not disconnected?
– That we quickly find the measures that increase the capacity of our electricity system. Like the assignment we gave to Svenska kraftnät to review how to increase transmission capacity and the assignment we gave to the Energy Agency on energy efficiency, says Khashayar Farmanbar.