The Slovaks are refueling their nuclear power plant while the Swedes are struggling with one of theirs
Slovak power company “Slovenské elektrárne” has completed the loading of fuel to the long-delayed Mochovce 3 nuclear power plant, the plant’s director said. At the same time, the Nordic countries will be faced with potential problems with electricity generation in the coming winter.
The 471-megawatt unit is one of a handful of new nuclear units to come online as Europe struggles with a power supply crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to the factory manager, Martin Mráz, the unit is expected to start producing electricity in late October or early November. “We will be in full production in early 2023,” Mráz said.
The new unit will produce around 3.7 terawatt-hours per year, covering 13 pct. of Slovakia’s electricity consumption and make the country self-sufficient according to the director.
Slovakia will become a net exporter of electricity after “Slovenské elektrárne” completes Mochovce Unit 4, about two years behind Unit 3. Construction was halted in the 1990s and resumed in 2008, but has been plagued by repeated delays and cost overruns.
Nordic power source problems
The crisis has been caused by Russia reducing the supply of energy resources to Europe in retaliation for the heavy sanctions against Moscow following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and has affected many European countries, which are struggling to find alternative sources of energy. While Slovakia’s nuclear power plant is about to go online, Sweden has suffered a setback with one of its plants.
The Swedish energy company Vattenfall announced on Tuesday that it had delayed the restart of the Ringhals 4 nuclear power reactor by two months, to January 31.
“The unforeseen necessary repairs are taking longer than expected, before the unit is started up after the annual maintenance,” Vattenfall said in a regulatory filing.
Vattenfall had already at the end of August extended the ongoing maintenance at Ringhals 4, which has an installed capacity of 1,130 (MW), by three months at the end of August, with the stated cause of damage to a key component during testing.
The damage requires a full-size mock-up of the 12-meter-tall structure to be constructed for maintenance personnel to train and test work methods, components and special tools that will need to be manufactured to clean the pressure vessel and install new spare parts.
Pontus de Maré, head of electricity system operation at the main grid operator Svenska kraftnät, says that the import requirement will increase from the normal 36 to 149 hours if Ringhals is not postponed again until winter. He added that with the current expansion, the risks of power shortages and blackouts in southern Sweden had increased. Prices can also be affected.
“If we get a lot of import demand, and it’s hard to get enough power while the demand is very high, the prices will shoot up very high single hours, single days. The prices can be extreme, says de Maré.
Tor Reier Lilleholt, a Norwegian energy market analyst, said the Ringhals 4 outage could also put pressure on prices in neighboring countries. “If we have a cold winter, this could lead to extreme effects on the market because it would be difficult to replace this power.”
One of the affected countries may be Finland. Russia suspended the sale of electricity to the country when it announced its intention to join NATO. This is of little consequence at the time, in May, as only 10 pct. of Finnish energy was imported from Russia. But if the winter turns out to be harsh, Finland may have to resort to importing power from Sweden.
“On a cold day with severe frost, Finland would have to import a significant amount of electricity from Sweden, so this is very bad news for Finland,” says Jukka Ruusunen, CEO of Finnish grid operator Fingrid.
source:
Reuters