A building in the northern harbor of Malmö has become a symbol of Sweden’s preparations for an uncertain future.
The power plant near the Oresund Straits was to be “dismantled” and shipped to new owners abroad. However, the war in Ukraine has upended the country’s defense policy and is now forcing a review of energy security plans.
With its capital closer to St. Petersburg than to Berlin, the Scandinavian nation of 10 million people has been at a standstill since Russia annexed Crimea a decade ago, Bloomberg writes in a lengthy article. And as it faces an increasingly emboldened Vladimir Putin, NATO’s newest member says it must be ready if the conflict spreads to the Baltics.
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Sweden’s grid operator wants the Malmö facility back up and running so it can keep the lights on in the country’s third-largest city in the event of a blackout following an attack on national energy infrastructure.
“Hopefully we won’t end up in a situation where we use these capabilities,” Mikael Nilsson, the plant’s director, told Bloomberg. “But knowing we’re there and ready when needed is really comforting.”
Strategic redesign
In addition to bolstering its military, which was downsized after the Cold War as Sweden bet from the start on a peaceful future, the country needs to upgrade ports, roads, rail networks, hospitals and shelters.
Its energy supply — a mix of nuclear, hydro and wind power — is particularly vulnerable, due to geography.
Some 16,000 kilometers (9,942 miles) of power lines that help connect manufacturing in the north to major cities in the south cut through dense forests that cover about two-thirds of the landscape.
This leaves the network vulnerable to sabotage and Sweden needs to be prepared for disruptions, according to Vera van Zoest, an associate professor at the Swedish Defense University. “Critical infrastructure, such as the power grid, is often a major target in times of war,” he stressed.
Energy supply
However, expanding the battlefield across Europe is not the only concern. The mysterious attacks two years ago on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline that sent prices soaring highlight the dangers of hybrid warfare, including so-called false flag attacks or others with plausible deniability.
By the end of 2028, around 1,000 qualified Swedes should be on hand to help protect energy supplies as part of compulsory civilian duty — a form of national service suspended after the Cold War and being reintroduced this year. Stronger fences will be built and surveillance will be strengthened.
And Malmö won’t be the only city that will be able to operate independently of the grid. Network operator Svenska Kraftnat says it has plans for the capital, Stockholm, as well as Gothenburg and key areas.
“It’s about building the ability to carry on as usual in times of crisis,” said the operator’s Chief Security Officer, Erik Nordman.
In total, the government allocated about 5.5 billion kroner ($510 million) in the 2024 budget for civil defense, nearly three times as much as in 2021, the year before Moscow sent tanks to Ukraine. And it topped up the funding in mid-April with an additional 385 million kroner.
But that still falls short of the 10 billion kroner the Swedish Civil Protection Agency estimates the country needs annually.
The example of Finland
The challenges are not unique to Sweden, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says other countries should be more like Finland — which shares a border with Russia and over the decades has created and maintains a strong civil defense infrastructure while also teaching citizens how to act in the event of a national emergency.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has already taken note.
“We learn a lot from what is happening in Ukraine, for reasons that are very sad,” he said during an April 23 press conference with Finnish President Alexander Stubb. “For more positive reasons we are also learning from Finland, especially in terms of preparedness and civil defence.”
The factory in Malmö
The 450 megawatt Malmö plant runs on natural gas but can also burn diesel and is owned by German energy giant Uniper SE. It shut down in December 2016 after electricity prices fell too far to turn a profit, then sold it in 2021 to Dutch company PACO Holding.
Last year, as Russia ramped up maritime activity in the Baltic and gained the upper hand in Ukraine, Svenska Kraftnat ordered Uniper to withdraw from the sale and put the plant on standby until the end of the decade.
In compensation, the grid operator offered up to 1.1 billion crowns — in one of the state’s first and biggest investments in energy security since Russia’s war in Ukraine began.
