Swedish bottlenecks in conflict with competition rules

Swedish bottlenecks in conflict with competition rules

April 13, 2015

The current Swedish handling of internal bottlenecks in the electricity transmission network in Southern Sweden is in conflict with the EU competition rules. This is our main conclusion in a memorandom which we have recently prepared for the Danish transmission system operator on the electricity market, Energinet.dk. The Swedish transmission system operator, Svenska Kraftnät, currently handles internal Swedish congestion by reducing the capacity of the Øresund connection to East Denmark. So far, nobody have filed a complaint to the EC Commission against Svenska Kraftnät’s policy towards internal bottlenecks. However, if a complaint was filed, we believe that the EU Commission would conclude that the current policy is an abuse of domianance and thus in conflict with Article 82 of the EC Treaty. In the memorandum, we argue that EU Commission could be expected to conclude that Svenska Kraftnät is dominant on the Swedish market for transmission and distribution of electricity in Sweden. We also argue that it is likely that the EU Commission would asses that it constitutes an abuse of this dominant position when Svenska Kraftnät handles internal Swedish bottlenecks by reducing the capacity of the Øresund connection. From a competition point of view, the problem is that by reducing the capacity on the Øresund connection Svenska Kraftnät is limiting the production of electricity in Southern Sweden to the benefit of Swedish consumers, but at a cost to Danish consumers. In addition, Svenska Kraftnät is limiting market integration between Sweden and Denmark. We conclude that the best solution to the internal bottlenecks in Southern Sweden would be market splitting with three separate Swedish price areas in (at snit 2 and snit 4) and no reductions of the capacity on the Øresund connection. This solution would create the price signals which are needed to create an effective market in both Sweden and the EU Read the report in Danish or in English Further information: Claus Kastberg Nielsen