Response to interpellation 2023/24:497 on civil duty and the electricity supply
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
M argues that the electricity system is fragile due to the political direction during the last 20–30 years 1. M emphasizes that the government is working on a fast track to activate civil duty within the electricity supply to strengthen preparedness and create better basic competence 1 2. M argues that the market is politically constructed 2. S claims that there is an acute situation due to a lack of competence and that outsourcing has dismantled internal competence 3 4. S advocates for investments in education and that grid owners take responsibility for basic staffing 4. S proposes that the support of 50,000 SEK per student and school year in industry school activities be reintroduced 5. M considers it possible to carry out what S proposes 6. M argues that there is a fundamental consensus on what needs to be done 6.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Mr. Speaker! Peter Hultqvist has asked me if I share his view that there is a problem in what he describes and what measures I, in that case, intend to take.
Society is entirely dependent on the goods and services provided by the business sector. Several activities of importance for total defense that were previously in public hands are today owned, operated, and managed by private Swedish and foreign companies. Within the electricity sector, it is not uncommon for activities to be covered by security protection legislation. Security screening of personnel and security protection agreements are used in applicable cases. Swedish or foreign personnel residing in Sweden can, if the government prescribes a general duty of service, be called up for service during high state of alert.
The Electricity Preparedness Act is the law that regulates electricity companies' obligations to take preparedness measures. The preparedness measures aim to prevent, resist, and manage disruptions in the electricity supply that can cause severe strain on society both during peacetime crises and during high alert. The obligations in the law apply to companies that engage in production, transmission, and trade of electricity. Svenska kraftnät can, in its role as the electricity preparedness authority, decide that actors shall take preparedness measures. Svenska kraftnät currently has access to repair material and trains employees at companies within the electricity power sector to be able to assist the electricity industry during major acute repair operations in cases such as accidents, acts of terrorism, or natural disasters.
On 12 October 2023, the government decided to task Svenska kraftnät with analyzing the need for civil service within the electricity supply and submitting proposals for measures. The agency shall, among other things, analyze and report which personnel needs are suitable to be met through civil service in order to contribute to securing the total defense's needs for electricity supply. The agency shall also analyze and report how the availability of today's repair readiness at Svenska kraftnät is affected during increased readiness. The assignment shall be reported by 29 March 2024 at the latest. Furthermore, the government decided on 21 December 2023 to activate civil service within the municipal rescue services and the electricity supply area. The decision means that persons who already have relevant training in these areas can be covered by civil service.
Furthermore, the Swedish Energy Agency has been tasked with coordinating a national effort regarding skills supply for electrification and, among other things, proposing measures to meet short- and long-term skills needs. In the mapping that has been carried out, among others, power line installers and station installers have been identified as shortage occupations. The assignment is to be reported by December 1, 2024, at the latest.
Step by step, the government is strengthening Sweden's preparedness within the electricity supply so that it will become more robust for both crisis and war. The government also intends to return to these issues in the total defense bill, which is planned to be submitted during the autumn of 2024. The Defense Preparation's report Kraftsamling - The direction of the total defense and the design of the civil defense will be an important basis in the work.
Peter Hultqvist (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer! It is a very important issue that we are now going to discuss. We have had a period of very high and in some cases extreme electricity prices. We have transmission problems, we have had problems with production and we have a major skills shortage.
I assert that it is an acute situation regarding the skills shortage. Svenska kraftnät cannot get the personnel that is necessary if one looks at Sweden as a nation. There are also extensive security policy aspects regarding this very situation. If foreign actors dominate in the energy system, it also opens up for those who have evil intentions - actors who want to intrude, who want to spy, who want to map our systems, who want to influence them improperly and who, above all, want a broad knowledge base about this. That type of antagonist exists. I think it should be said clearly and distinctly.
In Sweden, we have today approximately 50 people who have the competence to build, troubleshoot, and maintain Svenska kraftnät's facilities. It is not a large number of people. This is due, among other things, to the fact that over the last 20 years we have had a development where the grid owners have reduced the proportion of their own staff. Maintenance work on their own grids and production facilities has been outsourced.
A series of subcontractors provide personnel in large area-based procurements, and many times there can be hundreds of subcontractors in the same area. Large parts of the operations, or virtually the whole, are based on subcontractors. There are examples where a company has had 800 subcontractors under it. It is based on the fact that the three largest grid owners - Ellevio, Vattenfall and Eon - do not have a single own employee for operation, maintenance, troubleshooting or new construction. It is definitely not a good situation.
What would actually be needed is a proper investment in upper secondary and adult education to produce more people who can work within this sector. Regional competence centers would need to be created. We would need to establish a stakeholder-driven vocational board within the energy sector, where trade union organizations and employers collaborate to solve these types of problems. Arbetsförmedlingen would need to procure more training programs within this sector, and we would also have a political requirement that those who are network owners take responsibility for a basic staffing level so that they can manage fault rectification and ongoing maintenance of their own network under their own management.
From a security policy perspective, we would need to conduct a proper analysis of how we secure our energy needs in times of crisis and protect ourselves from foreign powers' interests when it comes to just this sector.
What I have now presented is a reality, and it will require a large and extensive effort to address this. Much of the reason for this is that one has outsourced to a large extent as one has done. One has phased out own competence and believed that market forces would solve the problem themselves.
This is, therefore, a description of a problem. It would be interesting to hear how the Minister, in addition to all the investigations, views this.
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Mr. Speaker! This interpellation is about the civil duty in the electricity supply sector. The broader questions, concerning the supply of competence within the electricity sector in general, are not issues that lie on the undersigned's table. But one could say that we have seen very few initiatives in this area during the previous government. I would say that they have shone with their complete absence.
Unfortunately, it is in such a way that we have a more fragile and more vulnerable electricity system in Sweden today than we had 20-30 years ago. When it comes to the primary responsibility for that development, it is about the political direction that has been taken in relation to the Swedish electricity system. It has not served Sweden well in all parts, as it has created a more fragile and more vulnerable electricity system.
Regarding the question that touches upon my area of responsibility, namely the ability to provide personnel for this sector in the event of high alert and, ultimately, an armed attack, it is a question that we have placed in a special fast track precisely because we see that the electricity supply area is so critical and because it is central to get this in place.
We have a large investigation looking at the entire upcoming personnel supply need in society during high alert, but we have also chosen to place civil duty regarding the electricity supply in the electricity supply area in a special fast track. We have partly made the activation decision, and partly through the work at the Ministry of Climate and Enterprise, given Svenska kraftnät a special assignment to report back on the conditions for how this could be done in a very expeditious manner.
Peter Hultqvist (S)
Mr. Speaker! This interpellation is precisely about the combination of skills supply and civil duty. I want to elaborate on that.
In the interpellation, it is established that the number of people who can perform this within the framework of Sweden is relatively low and that this is due to the fact that we have a problem with the foreign contractors. This raises the problem of the competence supply in the electricity grid.
One can then look at the civil service in this context. Svenska kraftnät has assessed that there is a need to recruit 8,000 people within the framework of this industry during the coming years. Their assessment regarding the civil service is that they could recruit 1,000 people in 2028. The question is how we are to educate and prepare these people so that they can manage that task in 2028. And based on this assessment, 1,000 people is only a small part of what is actually needed.
We had an initiative on education during the time we sat in government. It was started in 2018, and it was a specific grant that went to vocational schools: 50,000 kronor per student and school year. The education was carried out, among other places, in Åsbro. There, they trained approximately 130 distribution electricians per year. 35 of them were directly funded via this grant.
This was removed. It was reported by Lotta Edholm, who is a minister in the current government, on February 8, 2023. This support to the vocational schools was withdrawn. This means that one is reducing the educational opportunities when it comes to precisely these important and central workers who can work within this sector. It becomes directly counterproductive and counteracts the purpose of being able to support the development.
This is quite a bit, if one is to compare what has happened. Another part was that we appointed a competence supply investigation. It was Farmanbar who was minister then and who was responsible for just that part. That is something that Bohlin has also presented in his response.
It is clear that one can sit here and list what one and the other have done. What I am trying to point out is a major problem that something must now be done about.
I think it is good that Bohlin says that this system is fragile. This is based precisely on the strange over-reliance on outsourcing and various types of neoliberal solutions. One imagines that industries and markets solve their own problems.
If we are to overcome the challenge I have now set out, which concerns addressing the security of the electricity system, we must invest in education. We must invest in cooperation within the industry. We must invest in building up a proper and robust system. We must set aside the blind faith in the market, and we must see the challenges that exist within the framework of this sector.
Finally, I want to say something regarding the security issues. Bohlin received a letter from Elektrikerförbundet before Christmas. They have requested a meeting, where they primarily want to address the security aspects in a discussion with Bohlin. But the response has remained outstanding until now, and a meeting has not taken place. I would like to recommend to you, Bohlin, to have that meeting, because it can provide you with some information that you may need.
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Mr. Speaker! I believe that I fundamentally do not have any other opinion than Peter Hultqvist regarding the problems that exist when it comes to the robustness of the Swedish electricity system. What I might think is that Peter Hultqvist describes this in a one-sided manner. I am also not entirely convinced that this should be explained by some blind neoliberal market faith. This naturally has to do with what the politics over time has set up for steering mechanisms when it comes to this market. It is ultimately a market that is entirely constructed and given by political conditions.
It is indisputable in the sense that we find ourselves in a different security policy era than we did 10-15 years ago. I am therefore very pleased to note that this government, as soon as it took office, proceeded with the work of looking at the reactivation of civil service in this sector. This naturally does not only create greater availability and better conditions during high alert, but it also creates a better basic competence. There will be more people with the right competence who, during other parts of the threat scale, can be contracted on a voluntary basis to simply help the system function better.
We look forward with great confidence that Svenska kraftnät during this month will report its conclusions on how it intends to proceed with the activation of the civil obligation. It is important to get this in place as soon as possible. It is important that we get a better supply of competence.
Regarding the point that Peter Hultqvist raises about Elektrikerförbundet, I perceive it perhaps primarily as a Social Democratic political campaign rather than a matter of substance. I know that meetings have been offered with Minister Ebba Busch's political staff, as she is the person who handles these issues in the daily work.
Peter Hultqvist (S)
Mr. Speaker! It was probably not so well put, that the Elektrikerförbundet's request is about some kind of social democratic campaign. I have, in fact, taken part of the information they intended to submit. It is quite serious when it comes to some security issues. Now, Bohlin sits in a ministry where, among other things, that type of questions are handled, so regardless of whether this received an all too exaggerated political slant, I would recommend that he take that meeting. It can actually be important and interesting for Bohlin to do so.
When it comes to the civil service, it has been activated as a natural part in relation to the military service. On the other hand, it was the case that it took some time to produce work tasks that were justifiable when it came to the civil service. We are there now, and that is good.
However, I am still questioning how it is envisioned that one will manage to tackle the 1,000 people that Svenska kraftnät has previously said one could recruit by 2028. It will be interesting to see how it is planned to go about that. It is also interesting to consider how one will solve the need for up to 8,000 people that Svenska kraftnät has previously reported.
Then I would like to add that a simple measure to strengthen this sector would be to reintroduce the support we had of 50,000 kronor per pupil and school year in the vocational school activities that exist to train distribution electricians. It is a simple measure that could be taken.
Otherwise, I would like to thank you for the debate. I hope that this leads to the government now taking initiatives in various dimensions to improve today's situation.
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Mr. Speaker! It is naturally possible that what Peter Hultqvist describes connected to Elektrikerförbundet is fundamentally not a political campaign. If that is the case, that is good. I merely note that they have declined opportunities to meet representatives for the minister who is responsible for these issues in order to then try to make a media thing out of this. It bears a clear mark of a political campaign rather than a matter of substance. But we hope that they have the opportunity to meet representatives for Minister Busch's political staff and convey the information they find appropriate and that it, to the extent it concerns me, can be forwarded to the undersigned. I truly hope so.
I believe that there is fundamentally a consensus on the main features of what may need to be done in these issues. It will, of course, also be something to weigh up ahead of the upcoming defense decision.
The Defense Preparation Committee is currently working on its final report, where the Defense Preparation Committee will also give its view on the economic conditions. Ultimately, it is the case that a large-scale activation of the civil obligation within this sector costs money. I hope that the Social Democrats are also proactive in this part so that we can create the conditions for a robust and strong civil defense that we can move forward with in broad political agreement.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.