Swedish power grid monopoly faces EU competition probe

Europe’s top competition watchdog said that Svenska Kraftnät (SvK), the monopoly power transmission provider, may be unfairly restricting export capacity on Swedish links to neighbouring countries.

It voiced concerns that SvK was trying to relieve congestion in the Swedish network at the expense of consumers in other countries, “thereby hindering the proper functioning of the single market in electricity.”

“The commission has therefore opened a formal antitrust investigation into whether such practices indeed exist and whether they may constitute an illegal abuse of a dominant market position,” it said.

The commission said that opening proceedings against SvK did not necessarily mean that it had broken EU antitrust rules, but only that the case would be dealt with as a matter of priority.