Lokal ?-drift som resiliensstrategi Sm?skalig vattenkraft och kommunal energiberedskap i Sverige
Civil beredskapDecentraliseringEnergitrilemmatKulturgeografiM?lkonflikterResiliensSm?skaligVattenkraft?-drift
Through Russia?s ongoing war against Ukraine and the repeated a?acks on the country?s energyinfrastructure, the importance of resilient energy systems for the civilian popula?on has becomeincreasingly evident. Experiences from Ukraine demonstrate that small-scale and decentralizedenergy solu?ons play an important role in maintaining cri?cal societal func?ons during majordisrup?ons to the central power system.Today, Sweden has approximately 1,800 small-scale hydropower plants geographically distributedacross the country. How are Swedish municipali?es working to plan for and enable local opera?onthrough their local hydropower plants in order to strengthen local energy preparedness?At the same ?me, while the objec?ve of emergency preparedness is to increase security within theenergy system through enhanced resilience and robustness, conflicts can arise between twosustainability goals, environmental concerns, and the economic compe??veness of energycompanies. This tension is commonly described through the concept of the energy trilemma.The energy system can be understood as a mul?-scalar system in which measures such as localopera?on and decentralized energy produc?on may create tensions between different scales ofgovernance, where local needs for robustness can conflict with broader objec?ves of efficiency.The study, which is based on qualita?ve interviews with local and na?onal actors within the energysector, shows that Swedish municipali?es have progressed to varying degrees in the implementa?onof local island-mode opera?on. The case study municipali?es examined in this report, Alings?s andLerum, are currently unable to operate their hydropower plants in island-mode. However, planningand prepara?ons are underway to create local energy islands through backup power systems usingdiesel generators instead, despite the organiza?onal and logis?cal challenges associated with suchsolu?ons.Although hydropower offers several technical advantages compared to other energy sources, such asdispatchable electricity produc?on and frequency regula?on capabili?es, it also faces environmentalchallenges despite producing fossil-free electricity.The study concludes that achieving local resilience through small-scale hydropower requires strongerpoli?cal commitment, as well as clearer na?onal coordina?on of legal, organiza?onal, and economicdomains.