When southern Sweden experiences a lack of power, the situation is reversed in the north, and especially in Jämtland County. There is an abundance of available capacity here – and the best thing is that the electricity supply is both stable and completely renewable.
– In a world where electricity is gold, Jämtland sits on an entire gold mine, says Arne Bergvik, chief analyst at Jämtkraft.
Low electricity prices and stable power. That’s a simple and accurate summary of the energy situation in Jämtland County. Here you have the water, the wind – and to some extent also the sun, even though it is hard to believe in dark winter time. The basis for the very secure electricity production is hydropower, where the rivers’ rapids and falls give rise to large amounts of power. Power that is converted into clean, renewable electricity. In addition, the county has also sailed up as Sweden’s largest wind power district.
– The availability of electricity in Jämtland is good, for several different reasons. On the one hand, wind power has been greatly expanded in SE 2, the electricity area to which the county belongs. On the other hand, we have the existing hydropower. And the high-voltage cables to the south are not enough to export all electricity to Europe. If you want to consume electricity with a good margin, in other words SE2 applies. The area has the largest surplus of electricity in Sweden, and not many can compete with that abundance of green electricity today. Svenska kraftnät estimates that SE 2 will remain a surplus area until 2045, and probably longer than that.
Sweden is divided into four different electricity areas, where northern Sweden accounts for the largest production and thus also has the lowest prices. The southern part of the country can sometimes have problems with power, but that problem does not exist in northern Sweden – on the contrary.
– The 500 MW that we can offer is ten times more than what southern Sweden can provide. The country in general, and Jämtland in particular, also has the lowest electricity prices in Europe – a relationship that is strengthening and will last until the end of the 2020s, which is very positive for the industries that want to establish themselves here.
But good electricity supply and competitive prices are not enough. Stability and predictability are also needed to cope with large, electricity-intensive industries.
– The stability is due to the fact that we have many support points, you can think of it as a table – several legs are needed for it to be stable. According to all scenarios and analyses, we should also have at least a 40 TWh surplus of renewable electricity production over the next 25 years. This can be compared with Sweden’s total electricity use in 2020, which according to Statistics Sweden (SCB) was 134 TWh, says Arne Bergvik.
In short – Jämtland County today offers perhaps Europe’s best conditions for establishing electricity-intensive industry – in an area that also offers great added value for everyone who chooses to live and work here. Welcome to The Power Region!
