Öresundsverket

Öresundsverket remains within Uniper Sweden

The Swedish TSO, Svenska kraftnät, which is also the Swedish authority for electrical emergency preparedness, has decided that Öresundsverket will be included in the Swedish electricity readiness and has commissioned Uniper to take the necessary measures to enable the plant to be put into operation. Uniper has therefore decided to restore the plant to operational condition.

Öresundsverket in Malmö previously supplied electricity in southern Sweden and delivered district heating to the residents of Malmö. Due to low electricity prices and alternative heating production in the area of Malmö, Öresundsverket has not been available for the electricity market since 2017.

The history of Öresundsverket

The 1950s. Electricity was already being produced at Öresundsverket. The old Öresundsverket consisted of three separate plants that were built in different stages in Malmö’s industrial port.

Plant 1 was planned and built by Sydkraft in the early 1950s. The four coal- and oil-fired boilers produced enough steam for three steam turbines to generate a collective electricity capacity of 160 MW. Plant 1 was in commercial operation until the early 1970s.

1957. Plant 2 completed. The plant consisted of a steam turbine and a boiler large enough to produce 70 MW of electricity. Fuel for the boilers was coal and oil, just like Plant 1. In the beginning of the 1980s, while Plant 2 being was supplemented with the ability to produce 150 MW of district heating for Malmö’s district heating network, the boiler was also equipped with comprehensive filtering equipment for dust and sulfur.

1964. Plant 3 completed. Oil-fired equipment with capacity to generate 160 MW of electricity. After Plant 3 went into operation, Öresundsverket could call itself the largest power plant in northern Europe. The comprehensive expansion of Malmö’s district heating network in the end of the 1970s meant that Plant 3 was equipped for district heating production.

The old Öresundsverket produced a maximum of 400 MW of electricity and 250 MW of heating, which made the plant an important cornerstone of energy supply in southern Sweden.

Early 1990s. Plant 3 is equipped with a low-emissions burner and the control equipment is replaced.

1993. Despite the modernization, the plant is mothballed.

Early 2000s. Plans are developed to modernize Öresundsverket for a restart. Electricity consumption in the Nordic region had increased at this time and a risk was identified that an energy deficit might occur. This could eventually lead to higher electricity prices and increased use of electricity generation that is less environmentally friendly.

2009. The new power plant opened in December 2009, one of the world’s most efficient natural gas power plants. Öresundsverket was modernized and restarted because the need for new electricity generation was greatest in the southern part of the country, transmission capacity for hydropower electricity from the north is limited and Barsebäcksverket had been taken out of operation.

2017. The facility was no longer available to the market starting March 2017.

2021. Uniper signed an agreement with a buyer to deliver equipment and power plant components from Öresundsverket.

2022. Decommissioning the power plant began.

2023. The Swedish TSO, Svenska kraftnät, which is also the Swedish authority for electrical emergency preparedness, decides that  Öresundsverket shall be part of the Swedish electricity readiness and commissions Uniper to take the necessary measures so that the plant can be put into operation.

How Öresundsverket works

Electricity is produced from the movement of a generator. In a hydropower plant, the power of the water drives the turbines and therefore the generator shaft. In, for example, a nuclear power plant or a coal power plant, it’s heat from the process of boiling water to steam that provides the steam pressure that is the driving force of the facility.

In Öresundsverket, energy is used directly from burning fuel and from steam pressure to produce electricity in a gas turbine as well as a steam turbine.

1. Natural gas is burned under high pressure in the combustion chamber of the gas turbine.

2. The gases created expand in the gas turbine. This power drives the turbine shaft, which is connected to an electricity generator.

3. The warm flue gases also heat the water to steam and create steam pressure. This drives the turbine shaft from the steam turbine and thereby the other electricity generator.

4. The electricity generator delivers electricity to the grid.

5. Heat in the steam is transferred to Malmö’s district heating water.

6. District heating is distributed to houses and apartment buildings. The district heating is then transferred to the property’s internal system for heating and hot water.

7. The cooled district heating water circulates back to Öresundsverket and is heated again.

8. In periods of low need for district heating, the steam is used to produce more electricity in the steam turbine. Waste heat during this time is dissipated using a seawater-cooled facility.

9. After we have extracted as much energy as we can, the flue gases are released. Because the fuel is clean and the flue gases are filtered in a catalytic converter, the emissions have very little environmentally hazardous substances.

Öresundsverket and the environment

Öresundsverket’s operations are ISO 14001 certified, which is an international standard that establishes what a company needs to do to have a structured environmental agenda. Certification means that we meet the high standards that certified companies adhere to in terms of environmental expertise and procedures. If you have questions about our environmental policy or goals, you are welcome to contact us at [email protected].

The CHP plant is powered by natural gas, which is the precondition for high levels of simultaneous production of electricity and heat. Natural gas is free from dust and heavy metals and does not form soot particles when burned. Carbon dioxide emissions are 40% lower than when burning coal. The emissions of sulfur dioxide are very low.

Nitrogen oxides are formed when burning natural gas and other fuel, which contributes to the acidification of our land and lakes. To minimize nitrogen oxide emissions, Öresundsverket has been equipped with a catalytic scrubber that dramatically reduces the emission of nitrogen oxides.

The combination of clean and efficient fuel, advanced combustion technology that provides high operating efficiency, and catalytic scrubbing means that the environmental impact in terms of emissions in the air and surroundings can be kept very low, making Öresundsverket one of Europe’s most efficient CHP plants. Up to 90% of the energy in the fuel is used.

From a global perspective, the power plant also contributes to a drastic reduction of carbon dioxide emissions when it’s in operation. Because electricity and heat production at Öresundsverket uses a highly efficient fuel and advanced technology that provides high operating efficiency, production at less efficient coal power plants in the northern European electricity system can be scaled down by an equivalent amount.