Skellefteå Kraft last week announced a billion-kronor investment in hydropower on the Skellefteå river, but they are not alone in expanding hydropower.
In the spring of 2023, Vattenfall announced plans to build new hydropower plants at four locations in the Lule and Ume rivers. The first step in this process is the plan to convert the Juktan hydropower plant back into a pumped storage plant.
Johan Dasht, CEO of Vattenfall Hydropower AB, explains that they are now investing 57 million kronor in pre-project work for Juktan after the feasibility study has been completed.
– We already knew that we could generate significant power, and the feasibility study has confirmed what we believed. Now we know that the reconstruction is both profitable and technically possible, says Dasht.
Until 1996, Juktan was a pumped-storage plant that operated by pumping water from Lake Storjuktan to Lake Blaiksjön. When the plant needed to produce electricity, water was released from Blaiksjön.
If Juktan were to be converted back into a pumped storage plant, it would function as a battery. The plant could provide 315 MW of power for up to four days (for comparison, Juktan currently produces 26 MW as a traditional hydropower plant).
This would make it Sweden's largest pumped storage plant and, figuratively speaking, one of the country's largest batteries, equivalent to the power of 300,000 electric cars, according to Vattenfall.
– A lot has happened in power generation in Sweden since Juktan was built, and today the share of unpredictable wind power is increasing. This means fluctuations with peaks and troughs, says Dasht.
What Vattenfall will now do is estimate the costs and delivery times for components in order to develop a detailed specification.
– We want to reuse as much of the infrastructure as possible, but we also have to consider new components.
Another aspect is preparing an environmental impact assessment and applying for an environmental permit, which will be submitted to the Land and Environment Court in 2024, with the hope of negotiations starting in early 2025.
As far as the environmental permit is concerned, this will be a completely new permit. Work is already underway to develop new, modern permits for hydropower in Sweden.
This process has been paused as Svenska Kraftnät has been tasked with investigating the consequences, which will be reported early next year.
– We have high expectations. There is a goal and an idea that all the plants should meet modern environmental requirements, but it must not affect production capacity and regulation power. After the hiatus, there will be a clear overall leadership.
Blaiksjön has previously made headlines after mining waste was dumped into the lake, causing environmental damage. However, Vattenfall says its operations should not be negatively affected by this.
– Mining activities have been carried out there, and there are certain occurrences from that time. Remedial measures have been taken, and for existing operations the lake meets all expectations and requirements. We will do the same analysis for the new operations, and the ambition is that it should remain unchanged, says Dasht.
Vattenfall is also looking at increasing production at Porjus, Messaure and Harsprånget. The first two are further down the line, but Dasht says they hope to make an investment decision for Harsprånget in 2024.
