Final report - How do we get electricity networks for the future?

The electrification of everything from Swedish industry to our transport sector is proceeding at a rapid pace and is a prerequisite for combating climate change. While the debate is raging about how to produce more and more electricity, the electricity grids that will deliver it are silent. This is a big problem. The challenge of getting sufficient electricity networks in place in time is monumental and the costs that ultimately fall on electricity network customers will be staggering. The situation is not helped by a starting point of grid capacity shortages in the national grid in a majority of Sweden's regions. If we do not take the expansion of the electricity grid seriously, there is a great risk that there will be no electricity in the outlet and that Sweden will miss the set climate goals, no matter how much wind or nuclear power we build. The Environment and Public Health Institute (EPHI) has gathered some of the brightest minds to describe the challenges of the future electricity grid in a number of short reports. In the first five reports, we focused on mapping the conditions, providing a baseline description of the electricity grid and challenges that need to be solved and why. In this, the sixth and final report in the series, we tie up the loose ends: based on the perspectives that have emerged in the previous reports, we point out what the way forward must look like if the Swedish electricity grid is to meet the expectations we place on it, in the short and long term. And that path is reforms - for rapid and broad investments. Christofer Fjellner is former Program Manager Environment, Environment and Public Health Institute. HOW TO GET ELECTRICITY GRIDS FOR THE FUTURE - SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Electrification depends on networks - and networks on investment - Christofer Fjellner (pdf)