Response to interpellation 2022/23:312 on measures for lower electricity costs coming winter

Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)

Mr. Speaker! Welcome to those of you who are now changing in the chamber after the previous debate!

Marielle Lahti has asked me what measures I and the government intend to introduce before the winter of 2023 that will permanently lower electricity costs for Swedish households and companies.

I want to begin by stating that I agree with Marielle Lahti that electricity prices in Sweden since the autumn of 2021 have truly been unsustainably high. With a more efficient use of energy, we could increase Sweden's security of supply, strengthen competitiveness, and reduce the impact on climate and environment. This would also make Swedish consumers less vulnerable to high energy prices.

Sweden is a leader when it comes to electrification in combination with efficient energy use and flexibility to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. In the budget bill for 2023, the Government proposed measures for energy efficiency amounting to approximately 1.2 billion kronor during the period 2023-2025. The initiative means that owners of small houses heated with electricity or gas shall be able to receive grants of up to 60,000 kronor for energy-efficient measures. The grant ordinance is out for consultation until May 8.

The initiative also involves competence-enhancing measures and information efforts to raise awareness, increase knowledge, and provide concrete suggestions for measures that can be implemented in both the short and long term to reduce, above all, the vulnerability of the detached housing stock during high energy prices.

I therefore do not agree with Marielle Lahti when she expresses that the government has held back regarding energy efficiencies in order to quickly lower households' electricity costs. The government's policy implies a significant increase in ambition compared to before.

Energy efficiency is also an important part of the EU's Fit for 55 package, which implies an ambition increase to achieve more efficient energy use in Europe and increase resilience against Putin's energy war. During the EU presidency, Sweden has successfully driven the tripartite negotiation of the energy efficiency directive towards its goal.

I would finally like to add that we will not be able to efficiency our way out of the current energy crisis alone. In order for us to be able to obtain an electricity system that can deliver low prices, we need to create market conditions to build such an electricity system. That is where we are not today.

The government is therefore reorienting the energy policy to enable electrification through new dispatchable electricity production in Sweden, increase the pace of the expansion of the electricity system in terms of both electricity grids and electricity production, and strengthen the security of supply for Swedish households and companies. During the autumn, the government plans to present an energy policy orientation proposition where the electricity system will be at the center.

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Marielle Lahti (MP)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you very much, Minister, for the answer!

I agree with the Minister that there are several tools that can be used to lower electricity prices. Energy efficiency and more electricity production are two such tools.

Energy efficiency means that we use less electricity and get a lower electricity bill, and furthermore, the price of electricity goes down overall because we then do not need to use the most expensive power source as much. It becomes a win-win. That is why it is very pleasing that the government is investing in energy efficiency, but it is far too little money - 1.2 billion over a period of three years is in fact not at all sufficient.

To then claim that the government's policy involves a significant increase in ambition compared to previous years is simply not true. The red-green government had initiatives worth several billion kronor that the current government chose to vote down. It was investment support for both apartment buildings and Swedish industry, which the Christian Democrats, among others, therefore chose to remove.

Just as the Minister said, Putin had already begun his energy warfare during the autumn of 2021 by withholding his export of fossil gas, which had an impact on Swedish electricity prices. If the energy efficiency initiatives had been implemented, many Swedish households and companies would have had significantly lower electricity costs already during the previous winter.

Mr. Speaker! We also completely agree that energy efficiency alone is not enough. We need more electricity production throughout the country at a reasonable, low cost quickly, and the only type of production that meets these needs in the short term is wind power. The Minister has said several times that more wind power is needed, and that is pleasing. It is also pleasing that the government has approved some of the wind farms that have been on the government's desk, but unfortunately, we also see decisions that counteract this.

Conflicts of objectives are something that complicates the expansion of both production and the grid. Therefore, it is important that there are clear directives to the authorities that are directly involved in these processes. One such authority is the Armed Forces. The Government has actually actively chosen to remove the part of the regulatory letter stating that the Armed Forces shall cooperate with the development of the energy system.

It unfortunately does not stop there. Another important factor for facilitating the expansion of wind power is local compensation to increase the incentives to say yes to wind power, something that has been requested for a long time. But the government has chosen to limit the possibility for the so-called incentive study to produce a selection of proposals that provide local benefit and compensation models that make it attractive to say yes to wind power.

The investigation was presented yesterday, and the limitations were in fact so serious that the investigator believes they counteract the very mission of increasing incentives for the local community when it comes to new wind power.

If the government had actually prioritized a rapid expansion of wind power, it could have lowered electricity prices in the long run, but instead, in some cases, decisions have been made that counteract the expansion. My question to the Minister is: What does the Minister intend to do to enable a rapid expansion of wind power given the information we have received regarding the incentive study, for example?

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Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)

Mr. Speaker! We have two investigations that we are actively working on now within the Government Offices. They are the Climate Justice Investigation and the Environmental Assessment Investigation, both of which in different ways concern permit processes that affect the possibility of more power production, even though some parts of them also concern other areas. We have already begun to set to work on some of them through changes in directives and regulatory letters. We will return to others, as they also have implications for legislation.

We see a need regarding the possibilities to speed up wind power where it is welcome. Therefore, we have announced that we are looking at new directives for a new investigation that should be able to take a holistic approach to the processes surrounding a part of what concerns wind power. We look forward to returning to that.

Let me now go back to what is the subject of today's interpellation, even though this is connected, as it also concerns the issue of energy efficiency. Since we received the Energy Agency's assessment that Sweden will not be able to reach the goals we set for energy efficiency for the coming decades, two additional initiatives have been implemented in order to increase energy efficiency, primarily within the building sector.

In this year's budget bill, which I referred to in the response to the interpellation, Mr. Speaker, the government is investing approximately 400 million in energy efficiency. The initiative includes both a financial investment grant for reduced electricity and gas consumption within the small house stock and funds for capacity- and competence-enhancing measures for energy efficiency with the specific aim of reducing vulnerability during high electricity prices.

The prioritization we make in the budget, which is both clear and involves significantly greater resources than before, in combination with an ongoing assignment that the Swedish Energy Agency has to analyze how the use of energy, power, and resources can be made more efficient in order to facilitate our phasing out of fossil fuels through electrification, is a very good foundation.

The Swedish Energy Agency's mandate also includes, among other things, identifying and analyzing the socio-economically efficient energy efficiency potential - many efficiency words there - so that one can see in black and white what this can mean for our operations, in addition to it being right and proper.

We will then use the results of the investigation in the further work as we continue to prioritize the issue of energy efficiency vis-à-vis increased power production.

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Marielle Lahti (MP)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the information about the investigations - exciting! I look forward to seeing more of the proposals that come from the investigations that were mentioned.

I intended to touch upon this regarding the dragging of feet, which I raised in my interpellation. I intended to develop it a little bit in connection with compensation to customers, households, and companies.

We know that it has been a tough winter for Swedish households and companies. Despite Sweden being the largest exporter of electricity in the entire EU, we have also been hit by high electricity prices. When the fossil-fueled production on the continent was ramped up, the price effects spread all the way up to northern Sweden.

In this crisis, we need to support Swedish households and companies. The Tidö parties campaigned on quickly introducing support for households and companies so that they could survive the winter. Now we know what happened. The electricity support that was promised to be in place on November 1, 2022, became a broken election promise. In reality, the electricity support arrived at the end of February, and the companies are still waiting for their support. We hope that it will come now before the summer.

When northern Sweden, price area 1 and 2, are to receive any electricity support, we do not know. That is not good.

We mean that the state has a responsibility to intervene and adjust the injustice that electricity customers have been affected by. Swedish consumers and companies should not have to bear the entire burden of the high energy prices. The energy companies that have seen their revenues soar as a result of the global situation also need to be involved and contribute.

There was an opportunity for the government to collect some money, in addition to the bottleneck revenues, to compensate customers for the price increases that have occurred. Unfortunately, there was also a somewhat slow handling there, we believe, because within the EU, it was already agreed upon in October that there was an opportunity to have a revenue cap for some companies in the energy sector. In Sweden, this revenue cap, whose purpose is to collect money to compensate customers for the high prices, unfortunately was not in place until March 1. We were actually among the last in Europe to introduce this support.

That action has cost billions of kronor. The proposal was indeed designed in such a way that it precisely met the minimum requirements, which meant that a large part of the revenues generated, for example from electricity trading, were not covered by the revenue caps. There are calculations showing that it could amount to as much as 6-10 billion in missed revenues.

That is why we believe that people are dragging their feet, and it has occurred at the expense of Swedish households and Swedish companies.

There is much that suggests that the coming winter will be much tougher than the winter that has passed. My question is therefore what measures the Minister has prepared - which is the very focus of the interpellation - to ensure that Swedish households and companies will receive sufficient support, in time, this coming winter. Are there, for example, thoughts on handling the energy tax in some specific way? Are there any thoughts on such more acute measures beyond those that have been previously mentioned?

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Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)

Mr. Speaker! I would like to begin by correcting three inaccuracies in the member's contribution.

Firstly, it has never been promised that any money would be in any accounts on November 1st. A lie does not become truer because one repeats it several times. On the contrary, I have in speeches, in meetings with voters, in meetings with the media, on the party's website and so on, very clearly pointed out that there will not be any guarantees even that the money will be in the account before Christmas. This is because it must be done correctly and properly.

However, we did have a model in place just a few days after we took office. That is a fact. It is possible to cross-check interviews, background material, and what we have written on websites. I think it is important to be precise about what has actually been said and what has not.

However, I am the first to agree that we wish this support, this relief, this bandage - for it is not a solution - could have reached households earlier. We know how difficult it has been for many households.

Secondly, we have news on when the second round of electricity support will reach the whole of Sweden. At the end of May, Försäkringskassan will begin payments, even there according to the timeline that has been stated. Compared to the maximum 6,000-7,000 that one could receive with the previous government's electricity price compensation, we have thus delivered two electricity supports in two rounds to the households. They have also reached several of the gas households, which was not in the previous model. In addition, it is now also for the companies, which was also not included in the previous government's setup.

The third and final point I would like to emphasize concerns the reports that the Swedish state would have lost billions in revenue because we have adhered to Swedish legislation regarding a revenue ceiling for how much an electricity company can earn and when we can introduce a new tax. It is miscalculated from start to finish. It concerns a few hundred million. It is not pocket change either, but it is not 6 billion. The media reports are miscalculated from beginning to end. When we push through entirely new taxes, we have to adhere to the legislation that Sweden has and which the vast majority of countries do not have.

With that said, Miljöpartiet, KD, many of the representatives for the opposition and the government are very much in agreement that we now need to look forward toward next winter. That was also what I perceived to be Marielle Lahtis's purpose with the interpellation.

We will need to return to the question of electricity support, which again is only a relief. It has to do with the fact that the electricity support is based on something called capacity fees. They are paid to the state, or rather Svenska kraftnät, when we need to transfer between the four electricity areas because there have been differences and also price differences. Now it has been expensive, but the prices became much more even in November, December, and during the winter. This also means that the capacity fees decrease.

We now have a forecast of approximately 30 billion in revenues, compared to the 90 billion that we had in the forecast for last year during certain periods. That means a third compared to the support possibilities we had for this winter. That means we will continue to prioritize energy efficiency. We will return to the electricity subsidy. But it is clear that as a bourgeois politician, I much prefer to lower the tax. I am very curious about what we can assist with regarding the electricity tax, but it is also too early to judge if it is the right measure.

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Marielle Lahti (MP)

Mr. Speaker! I completely agree that it is not long-term sustainable to use the bottleneck revenues in the sense of providing the acute supports. The purpose of them is, as the Minister indicates when she explains why they are generated, to build away the bottlenecks and perhaps have a price area in Sweden eventually. It is unfortunate if those funds cannot be used for that. In the long run, it becomes more costly with these bandages, as the Minister herself said.

It would be interesting to hear if there are thoughts regarding what can be done with the energy tax. There is much that can be done there, also to regulate the usage overall, even if it is not just about acute crises.

I look forward to the increased efforts in the area of energy efficiency and that the Minister develops powerful measures to promote the incentives following the so-called incentive investigation for increased wind power expansion, as it is also a way to lower the price for the customer.

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Energi- och näringsministern Ebba Busch (KD)

Mr. Speaker! Much has been said, but I want to add two things regarding long-term perspective.

Now, for the first time ever, Sweden is getting a set goal for the minimum electricity consumption Sweden must be able to meet. By 2045, it is at least 300 terawatt-hours. This makes it possible for us to otherwise meet and evaluate how much power production we are able to deliver year by year in relation to the goal.

I want to repeat the question about Fit for 55, which contains an important part about energy efficiency. We are making the largest prioritization of energy efficiency ever in a state budget. It is higher than, for example, what Sweden was governed on in 2021/2022. We will continue to work in that direction, and we are happy to cooperate on those issues.

In conclusion, I want to say that on December 15 last year, we gave a mandate for the procurement of electricity production for the upcoming winter. It is a concrete measure that was taken already in December 2022 to handle December 2023 and January and February 2024. We will return to the result of the procurement. But it will be an important part in making Sweden a little stronger already ahead of next winter.

With that, I would like to thank you for the debate.

The interpellations debate was hereby concluded.

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