Busch on electricity prices: "It could be a messy winter"

Sweden runs no acute risk of suffering from a shortage of electricity or fuel in the near future - but it could be significantly more expensive. That was the brief message from Energy Minister Busch and the Energy Agency's director general Caroline Asserup at a press conference on Thursday.

Several factors pave the way for a price rush. The levels in the hydropower reservoirs are low and the nuclear power is not delivering at full capacity due to ongoing maintenance.

In addition, gas shortages threaten in Europe, something that has a tendency to push up electricity prices in southern Sweden in particular. The EU countries have a common electricity market and on the continent a lot of electricity is produced in gas power plants. If prices go up there because of shortages, they often go up here too. The gas shortage is due both to the Ukraine war and the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Minister of Energy assures that Sweden is well equipped, but at the same time underlines the seriousness.

- The dose makes the poison. High prices for a long time in combination with sensitive markets is a potentially dangerous mix for Sweden, says Ebba Busch.

So far in October, the average price of electricity in southern Sweden, electricity area 4, is SEK 1.54 per kilowatt hour. It is over the limit for electricity subsidy, which is SEK 1.50, but then calculated as an average for a whole month.

The Minister of Energy confirms that it may be appropriate to pay out high-cost protection. Her assessment is that the transitional government has the mandate to do so. In that case, the level of the electricity subsidy remains to be decided.

- If there are questions about it, we have a good dialogue with all parties in the Riksdag, she says.

The message comes with a caveat. The transitional government must stay within the cost limits that have already been set for the support, and what it will look like next year must be decided by a new government.

The fighting in the Middle East has also pushed up fuel prices. The Tidö government implemented temporary tax cuts to compensate for this to some extent, but they expire in the autumn. The Sweden Democrats have raised a proposal in the Riksdag that the transitional government should take up a new negotiation with the Commission to once again be allowed to lower the tax below the EU's minimum level.

Ebba Busch emphasizes that the transitional government does not have, and should not have, any opinion on the matter.

- But given the experience I have with energy issues and as party leader for the Christian Democrats, I look positively on such an initiative. I see that there may be a need for it and look forward to discussing it in the Riksdag, says the KD leader.