Challenges and successes in 2020
2020 became a strange year with massive changes in the entire world, and naturally also for OKG. The greatest challenge for OKG last year was the carefully prepared maintenance outage, which due to the current pandemic had another dimension. We were, however, able to complete all the required activities in the anticipated manner and thereby also secure the deliveries of fossil free electricity from OKG for at least another twenty-five years.
During practically the entire last year, the activities at OKG were run in the shadow of the current pandemic. By meticulous planning and preparations, a great many measures to prevent the spread of infection were taken in order to protect and ensure the health and safety of all our employees as well as that of our contractors, primarily by carefully planning the maintenance outage at unit Oskarshamn 3 (O3) and by ensuring that safety always comes first. In order to reduce the risk of spreading the infection, the number of personnel working at the same time on site were reduced. This was possible since we scheduled the planned activities in sequence instead of in parallel. This safety promotion activity was also one of the reasons why the outage lasted for more than three months.
- The extension of the outage also entailed that we would not be able to beat the 2019 production record on nearly 11 billion kilowatt hours, says Johan Lundberg, Managing Director of OKG. However, thanks to a high level of delivery precision during the rest of the year, unit O3 was able to deliver 8 billion kilowatt hours of fossil free electricity in 2020.
In connection with the extensive outage, all the installations of an independent supplementary system were completed, a system that will contribute to securing the core cooling in the event of a serious accident.
- The independent core cooling system is a significant condition for all our future electricity deliveries from unit O3, says Johan Lundberg. We now meet all the internal and external requirements for long-term operation, which means that we can also plan and prepare for production for at least an additional twenty-five years.
The major dismantling of units Oskarshamn 1 and 2 was also in progress in 2020. These activities are run in close cooperation with Barsebäck and the demolition of the four reactors in total is run in parallel as well as in sequence. This is done in order to make use of experiences gained and hence also further develop the current dismantling methods used. We aim to gradually commercialize the activities and offer similar services on the open market in the future.
- Even though the current pandemic most likely continuously will have a major impact on the world, our aim for 2021 is to fulfil all our plans. We thus aim to also in the future meet the expectations of the surrounding world concerning the essential services and vital societal functions run at OKG, concludes MD Johan Lundberg.
Information about any changes is available on the web page of the Nordic power market, nordpoolspot.com. Information about the current production is also available on Production information.