I'm calling out Vattenfall on that. They don't have a grip on their things, says Ebba Busch to the newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
The statement is directed at Vattenfall's reasoning behind the decision to pause Kriegers Flak, citing that it is no longer profitable since the Swedish state – unlike the Danish and other EU countries – no longer covers the cost of connecting the wind farm to the grid.
I think it's incorrect to claim that the decisive factor is the connection fee, says Busch.
"Must correct"
The Kriegers Flak project was given the green light by the previous red-green government in 2022 and was scheduled to be operational in 2028, until Vattenfall pressed the pause button in early September, citing that the conditions no longer make it profitable to build the wind farm.
The Social Democrats' party leader Magdalena Andersson believes that Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson must respond to the minister's statement:
We have a Vice Prime Minister who instead of taking responsibility for the government's energy policy failure, is blaming a state-owned company. It's uniquely weak. Therefore, my demand on Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is that he must intervene and correct this, she says.
She believes that the government must stand by its decisions – and the consequences of them.
Vattenfall's response
This is about getting electricity to Skåne, which is plagued by high electricity prices and needs more electricity production. The government's policy leads to higher electricity prices in Skåne than it had to be, simply, says Magdalena Andersson.
Representatives of Vattenfall do not want to answer questions about Busch's statements.
According to Dagens Nyheter, Vattenfall has stated in an email that they "of course have a grip on their numbers" and that the connection fee "is one of several factors in an investment decision".
Vattenfall has "nothing further to say about this right now", writes the company's acting press chief Christian Lundgren to TT.
