Solutions
Winter Grid Operation in Remote Areas – Distance and Weather Challenges
January 2026
Swedish power grids carry a growing maintenance debt. For decades, necessary maintenance has been postponed, and infrastructure from the 1960s and 1970s is reaching the end of its lifespan. Now, as society electrifies transportation, industry, and heating, the consequences are becoming increasingly clear – and the costs increasingly high.
Maintenance debt occurs when necessary maintenance and reinvestments are postponed. It's the difference between the maintenance required to keep assets in desired condition and what is actually performed. Just like financial debt, this debt grows over time – with interest in the form of increased risks and higher future costs.
For grid companies, maintenance debt means:
During the 1990s and 2000s, after the deregulation of the electricity market, short-term cost savings were often prioritized over long-term infrastructure development. The focus on reducing operating costs and streamlining operations led to necessary reinvestments being postponed. This accelerated the problem of aging assets that had already accumulated during previous decades.
The results are clearly visible today: transformers with increasing oil leaks, substations with outdated technology, and cables that cannot handle today's loads.
Maintenance debt exists to varying degrees among grid companies across the country, but is particularly significant for older components in critical parts of the grid. The problem is not only extensive – it's also accelerating.
As equipment ages, not only does the risk of failure increase. The ability to handle increased load decreases, which becomes increasingly problematic as society's electricity needs grow. A transformer that functions satisfactorily under normal conditions can suddenly become a bottleneck when new charging stations or industries are connected.
Furthermore, planned maintenance carried out at the right time costs a fraction of emergency measures after a failure. When components break unexpectedly, not only more expensive spare parts and overtime work are required – the societal costs in the form of power outages can also be significant. Grid companies are also forced to make temporary solutions that in turn require additional maintenance.
The longer measures are postponed, the fewer options remain. Eventually, only emergency replacements remain, often under pressured circumstances and at higher costs than would have been necessary with early action.
To reverse the trend, both structural changes in how power grids are regulated and new ways of working with maintenance are required. Ei has proposed a TOTEX-based regulatory model that focuses on total cost effectiveness rather than just capex or opex. This means that grid companies' economic incentives shift from minimizing short-term expenses to optimizing total cost over time – including risk costs for outages and failures.
In practice, this means that investments in condition monitoring and predictive maintenance become more profitable, as they directly contribute to reduced total costs over time.
Traditionally, power grid maintenance has been either reactive (fix when it breaks) or time-based (replace after X years). Neither method is optimal: reactive maintenance is expensive and risky, while time-based maintenance can mean that fully functional equipment is replaced prematurely.
Predictive maintenance, based on continuous condition monitoring, instead enables:
Working down the maintenance debt is a long-term process that requires both investments and new working methods. But with the right tools and methods – such as condition monitoring and predictive maintenance – grid companies can do this systematically and cost-effectively. For a future where power supply is both stable and ready to meet society's growing needs, it is a necessary investment.