After Ringhalsstoppet – oil heating in Karlshamn current
The shutdown of a Ringhals reactor has led to Svenska kraftnät requesting that the power producer Uniper be ready to start up the oil-fired reserve unit in Karlshamn with two hours’ notice.
It is about securing sufficient margins in the Swedish power balance, Svenska kraftnät writes in a statement on the electricity exchange Nord Pool’s site.
The announcement comes after a production stoppage in one of Ringhals reactors dragged on, which helped push up Monday’s hourly prices for electricity at Nord Pool to over SEK 3 for most of the day. These are the highest prices since the price peaks before the Christmas weekend.
Technicians at the Ringhals nuclear power plant have this weekend located the electronic fault that triggered the quick stop in reactor 3 on Thursday. The forecast is that the reactor can be started up at midnight on Monday.
Ringhals 3 was also stopped on Wednesday night last week. The cause was then located to one of the control rods that was triggered due to a signal error. The restart began on Saturday and the reactor was back in full production on Tuesday.