Central Infrastructure

Central Infrastructure is a pan-Nordic organisation. This organisational structure allows the company to submit tenders across national boundaries whilst leveraging Infratek’s collective expertise, thus providing the company with a competitive edge. During the year we constructed a transformer station for Statnett involving collaboration between our Norwegian and Finnish personnel, and several power line projects in Sweden involving internal resources from both Norway and Sweden. 

 

Infratek is an end-to-end supplier of projects for transformer stations all the way from the design to the commissioning phase. Rebuilding and expansion of existing transformer stations are also important services provided by this business area, and Infratek’s professional expertise additionally includes testing and start-up. The Group is not bound to any specific equipment manufacturers and can therefore offer the customer the best solutions regardless of the manufacturer.
 

Infratek’s work involves the laying, splicing and connection of cables. The company provides project services and has qualified personnel for handling splices and terminations from leading manufacturers of cables and equipment up to 420 kV.
 

Infratek carries out power line projects up to 145 kV, and voltage upgrades from 300 kV to 420 kV on the central grid. The line projects tend to consist of either erection of entirely new lines or replacement of older materials.

Infratek offers a broad spectrum of maintenance services ranging from preventative maintenance planning to emergency services for the central and regional networks, power and transformer stations and remote controlled control systems. We possess leading expertise within oil cables within both repairs and maintenance. Central Infrastructure boasts expertise in maintenance of materials provided by all the equipment suppliers which are currently used in critical power-related infrastructure. The company can offer a high degree of reliability and uptime for grid owners through proprietary workshops for transformer repairs and by offering advanced on-site maintenance services.
 

The business area’s performance trailed expectations in 2012. This was in particular attributable to significant losses on some older medium-sized projects in the regional grid in Sweden. However, the situation improved markedly in the last quarter of the year, which featured lower losses and improved project margins. The Nordic market for projects in the central and regional grids is starting to move in the right direction, despite the fact that the announced timetables for new investments have been slightly delayed.
 

The next ten years will see considerable investments and reinvestments in the Nordic central and regional grids for voltage levels from 40 kV and higher.

The owners of the central grid in Sweden and Norway, Svenska Kraftnät and Statnett, have significantly stepped up investment levels. The networks’ age is a major contributing factor to this situation, which is further reinforced by the fact that the rate of reinvestment has been relatively low these past 10 to 15 years. Investments in the Finnish central grid will remain largely unchanged.

In addition to the above, continuing bottlenecks in the Nordic power grid are restricting the transfer between different countries and regions. Most forecasts point to a surplus of power production in the Nordic system during the next ten years, which will increase the need for more connections to countries outside the Nordic region.

Based on these factors, Central Infrastructure’s market prospects generally look strong and in overall terms we see major opportunities in the years to come.

The regional grid market is also expected to grow, but not at the same rate as the central grid. With society switching to a more environmentally friendly approach, and a greater percentage of environmentally-adjusted production, this will necessitate major strengthening of the grid. Conversely, a degree of uncertainty attaches to investment volumes for the largest regional grid owners over the next few years, including as a result of the European debt crisis and the current low power price, both of which could cause project delays.

One industry-specific factor causing uncertainty is the new grid regulation model in Sweden. The Swedish Energy Authority rejected the grid companies’ proposed revenue model for the next four years. Instead a model was adopted limiting revenue opportunities for the grid companies. This could impact the Swedish grid owners’ willingness and opportunities to invest in the distribution and regional grids over the next few years. 

 

Central Infrastructure’s strategy is to be a market leader within its focus areas and to grow concurrently with its customers’ investment ambitions by further building on the organisation’s experience and expertise. During 2012 project management and design activities were significantly strengthened. These areas will be further reinforced in 2013, including through the establishment of a new office in Västerås in Sweden.

Since the start of the year Central Infrastructure has been organised into two divisions: projects and production. This division clearly demarcates responsibility with respective focuses on construction and maintenance. During 2012 new heads were appointed for each of the divisions.