Swedish power supply is "satisfactory" despite nuclear shutdowns -grid operator

The outages comes at a critical time as energy prices soar across Europe and countries scramble to ensure there is enough power output for the coming winter. The production loss will be replaced with power from other sources and through imports, the operator said in a statement.

The power supply situation in Sweden is "satisfactory" despite several temporary nuclear outages in the country, national power grid operator Svenska Kraftnat said on Friday.

Sweden's biggest nuclear reactor Oskarshamn 3 will be switched off for maintenance from Dec. 9 to Dec. 18 while the Ringhals 3 reactor will operate at half capacity over the weekend. The outages comes at a critical time as energy prices soar across Europe and countries scramble to ensure there is enough power output for the coming winter.

The production loss will be replaced with power from other sources and through imports, the operator said in a statement. "We normally export a lot but we now see the benefits of being able to import via interconnectors linking us to other countries," said Pontus de Mare, head of systems operations at Svenska Kraftnat.

The assessment is that there is not a high risk of a power shortage in the near future, he added. In a further setback to power supply in the Nordic and Baltic region, Swedish utility Vattenfall said last week it had

delayed the restart of the Ringhals 4 nuclear reactor by around three weeks to Feb. 23.

In neighbouring Finland, startup of a new nuclear reactor was recently postponed

until Jan. 22 and the country's energy agency this month said risks of power outages had increased

due to uncertainty about domestic production and foreign imports.

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