Increased flexibility in the Swedish regulation on continuity of supply since 2024

Regulating continuity of supply (CoS) is challenging due to varying end-user needs. However, end-users should be able to expect at least a minimum level of CoS. Therefore, the Swedish Electricity Act prohibits outages longer than 24 hours and requires the transmission and distribution of electricity to be of good quality. The Swedish Energy Markets Inspectorate (Ei), is responsible for issuing detailed legislation on what is considered good quality. Ei’s first legislation was issued in 2011 and the latest revision entered in to force on January 1, 2024. A key update is the possibility for distribution system operators (DSO) to be exempt from CoS requirements for certain end-users. These exemptions are intended to address situations where meeting the requirements would lead to excessive costs or other significant challenges. This paper presents the Swedish regulatory framework for CoS, focusing on the recent changes. The aim is to explain the reasoning behind introducing the possibility for DSOs to not meet the requirements on CoS for certain end-users. The paper outlines the requirements that must be fulfilled for derogations to be granted by Ei and cases handled by Ei so far . It also discusses the impacts of a derogation for both end-users and DSOs.