Business Area Power Generation

Vattenfall is one of the largest producers of fossil-free electricity in Europe. Safe, reliable and efficient electricity generation by hydro and weather-independent nuclear power plants serve as the backbone for northern Europe’s electricity system.

The Forsmark nuclear power plant in Sweden.

In 2018 the Power Generation operating segment produced a total of 90.5 TWh of electricity, where the Swedish part accounted for more than 55% of Sweden’s total electricity generation. Optimisation and distribution of reliable and flexible power to the market is provided by the Markets Business Area, which handles hedging, sourcing and trading to ensure security of supply to Vattenfall’s customers. Our service business develops and delivers maintenance services to both internal and external customers in the Nordic energy market.

Strategy

The Swedish energy agreement that was reached in 2016 enables our fossil-free and cost-effective nuclear power to play a key role in the phase-out of fossil fuels from the energy system. Our flexible hydro power is becoming increasingly important as a tool for balancing the growing share of weather-dependent electricity generation.

The following focus areas have been identified for Power Generation:

• Provide safe, reliable, and efficient hydro and nuclear power generation while proactively preventing incidents and accidents and mitigating the consequences of any accidents to employees, the general public and the environment. A target cost level of 19 öre/kWh has been set for 2021
• Ensure flexible operations that deliver high availability in our power plants and allow us to deliver electricity in periods with low production from weatherdependent energy sources
• Ensure effective dismantling of decommissioned nuclear power plants and develop systems and facilities for management and final disposal of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste
• Be a market leader in services and maintenance of Nordic power grids
• Be a leading provider of renewable energy to business customers in Europe and build up a portfolio of power purchase agreements (PPAs). The PPA portfolio currently amounts to nearly 5 GW, and the goal is to increase this to 7 GW by 2020
• Utilise digital technology to improve asset optimisation and drive cost efficiency through process automation

Key data

¹ Operating profit excluding items affecting comparability.