Sweden fires up oil-fired generating capacity to supply high-demand Poland

Sweden has fired-up the 662-MW Karlshamn oil-fired plant to help meet Poland's power demand needs on Dec. 6, the country's grid operator Svenska Kraftnat (SvK) said Dec. 6.

The Uniper-operated Karlshamn plant in southeast Sweden is used to supply 562 MW of the country's winter reserve.

"Analysis shows that during the day (December 6) Poland will not be able to cope with power supply for certain hours and has asked neighboring countries, including Sweden, for support. Svenska Kraftnat will therefore make power available from Karlshamnsverket on behalf of Poland," SvK said.

At most, Poland was estimated to have a deficit of 1.7 GW, SvK said.

"Even if Sweden is expected to have relatively high consumption on Monday, there will be an opportunity to support Poland if nothing unforeseen happens," the company said.

Poland has recently been and continues to be a discount market with spot prices below its western, southern and northern neighbors.

However power demand has risen in recent days, setting a new record of 27.56 GW on Dec. 2, according to data from the country's grid operator PSE, and the country's reserve for Dec. 6 was below the required minimum level.

PSE planned to use maximum import capacity from Germany and Sweden, while no capacity was available on the 488 MW LitPol Link with Lithuania.

The company would also import maximum capacity from Slovakia and the Czech Republic, both normally net importers of power from Poland.

On Dec. 6 at 10:00 CET, Polish power demand was 25.72 GW and domestic generation was 24.84 GW.