Sweden: Security Police Warn of Increased Risk of Sabotage of Electric Grid

The Swedish Security Police (Sapo) has warned that the country faces an increased risk of sabotage of Sweden’s electricity grid and has called for more resources to monitor the energy sector.

Both Sapo and the Swedish Energy Agency have sounded the alarm that the country’s energy supply may be at heightened risk of sabotage and have sent out letters to companies that operate the electrical grid to be more vigilant for any possible sabotage attempts.

“We go out and talk about increasing vigilance regarding central infrastructure in Sweden. The energy sector needs to take measures to protect what is to be protected,” Karl Melin, press officer at the Swedish Security Service told broadcaster SVT.

Sapo and the Swedish Energy Agency have called for extra vigilance following the alleged sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea but have not revealed whether Sweden has seen any recent attempts at sabotage within the country.

Erik Nordman of the publicly-owned Swedish electrical transmission system operator Svenska kraftnät stated that increased vigilance could take several forms, saying, “It can be about increasing surveillance around critical infrastructure – it can be IT systems as well. It is quite clear that we have a more serious security situation now.”

Already this year, Sweden has reported massive surges in the price of electricity in some areas of the country, with prices rising as much as 400 per cent in August due to rising demand from countries like Germany as well as low output from the domestic sources of energy such as wind power.

The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) warned last month that Sweden is ill-prepared for the looming winter energy crisis and that businesses and vulnerable people may be at risk if shortages and outages take place.

Unfortunately, preparedness is generally very poor. Already in 2011, we identified 50,000 electricity-dependent socially important businesses in Sweden. Very few of them have reserve power today,” MSB manager of supply preparedness Jan-olof Olsson said.

“The consequence is that many businesses, shops and companies simply shut down in the event of a power outage because there is no plan b,” Olsson added.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.