“The risk of a holiday is real and Swedes must prepare for it,” Civil Defense Minister Karl-Oscar Bolin told a news conference.
Sweden’s government warned households and businesses today to prepare for possible blackouts this winter amid nuclear reactor outages, freezing temperatures and power shortages in Europe after Russia cut its natural gas exports.
“The risk of a holiday is real and Swedes must prepare for it,” Civil Defense Minister Karl-Oscar Bolin told a news conference.
“Sweden has never been in this situation,” he said.
Energy prices in Scandinavia have risen this year amid fears that cuts to Russian gas exports to Europe will lead to shortages, and the Swedish government earlier this month urged citizens to use less electricity.
Contingency plans must include the possibility of short as well as longer vacations, the minister clarified.
“Those who under normal circumstances can take care of themselves should also be able to do so in a crisis like a power outage,” Bolin said.
Official recommendations include keeping a battery-powered radio, flashlights, bottled water and food that is easy to prepare.
In the event of a power outage, households should designate a room where the family can stay to maintain heat for longer, the minister added.
“It’s better to be prepared than not. This is not an attempt at risk management,” Bolin stressed.
Swedish utility Vattenfall on December 2 announced it had postponed the restart of its nuclear reactor, Ringhals 4, until February 23, one of several outages that have hit power supplies in Scandinavia.
The Swedish government said last week that it has asked the national electricity grid operator and the country’s energy regulator to step up their work to strengthen electricity security in both the short and long term.
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