Outages at oil-fired facilities in Sweden contribute to power supply problems
An oil-fired power plant in southern Sweden owned by the German energy giant Uniper suffered a failure early Thursday when a boiler tripped, adding to supply problems in the country where nuclear and wind power output was lower than usual.
The Karlshamnsverket was affected by the breakdown for just over an hour on Thursday morning in Sweden, according to a message on the Nord Pool electricity exchange. The plant is now back online, but the outage highlights the vulnerability of Europe’s electricity generation when other sources are also in tight supply.
Karlshamnsverket is an oil-fired peak and reserve power plant located in southern Sweden, which requires more capacity than other parts of the country, its operator Uniper says.
On Tuesday, Uniper told Reuters it had operated the oil-fired peak and reserve plant for a week due to very high prices on the Nord Pool electricity market. Since August 8, one of the plant’s two blocks has been running every day except one, says Karlshamnsverket’s spokesperson Björn Magnusson to Reuters.
Power prices in the Nordic countries are skyrocketing due to low hydro and nuclear power production.
Sweden, one of the EU members with greenest electric mix in the block – with hydropower, nuclear power and wind power dominant – restarted Karlshamn fuel oil power plant last fall when the energy crisis in Europe began.
Almost a year later, the crisis has worsened so much that governments are calling for energy savings and considering rationing this winter.
Europe’s power prices break records. Nuclear power generation is lower due to hot river waters, and hydropower reservoirs are also at low water levels due to the drought and heat waves this summer. This does not even count the drastically reduced Russian gas pipeline supply to Germany and the run on LNG among EU buyers. In addition, the supply of coal and petroleum on the Rhine River – a major European waterway for barge transport – is disrupted by low water levels.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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