Norway’s power grid operator Statnett and its Swedish counterpart Svenska Kraftnat have agreed to jointly invest 1 billion crowns in a system for balancing Nordic power supply and demand. A new model is needed to accommodate the transition towards more renewable energy and to facilitate Europe’s common electricity market, Svenska Kraftnat said in a statement. The system will control power balancing across the Nordic region, also including Finland and Denmark. The new model will include information technology (IT) that digitises and centralises balancing control, under which imbalances in the power system will be settled within 15 minutes, meeting European Union requirements. “Automation is an absolute prerequisite for managing the changed power system. The changes mean that we will do more in a shorter time,” said Lowina Lundstrom, head of Svenska Kraftnat’s system operations. The balancing methods the new model will develop are subject to regulatory approvals from both Norwegian and Swedish power regulators.