Published 2026-09-10 · Event 2026-05-27

Grid-queue literacy: indicative, applied, reserved, allocated, energized

Svenska kraftnät’s indicative transmission-network capacity map is a 2026 county-level indication. It does not replace the formal connection process and does not show underlying-network capacity. Applied, reserved, allocated and energized are different categories on the authority’s own page. They must not be summed into a spare-megawatt figure for a plot in Luleå, Falun, Stockholm or Staffanstorp.

Capacity words travel badly between a land brochure and a network-owner letter. The same megawatt unit appears on an indicative map, in an application, in a reservation, in a signed allocation and in an energized load. Those five states are not the same fact. Svenska kraftnät’s own map page, reviewed 27 May 2026 in the extract used here, is the dated primary source for how the authority wants those words read at transmission level. A data-center file that pastes a map colour as “100 MW available” has already left that source.

Read the file in this order. First, the connection portal, which explains who applies to the transmission network and why most customers start with the local network owner. Second, the capacity-map page, including purpose, delimitations and the definitions of indicative, applied, reserved and allocated capacity. Third, Energimarknadsinspektionen’s bidding-area note, so that SE1–SE4 are not mistaken for the map. Fourth, only then, any operator sentence that “power is secured.” Fifth, Boverket’s detaljplan guidance, so that a map interval is not mistaken for a land-use decision.

The connection portal, reviewed 23 April 2026 in the extract used here, says that connecting to the state-owned part of the transmission network requires an application to Svenska kraftnät. As a main rule, an installation should connect at the lowest voltage level that is technically and systemically suitable. The owner of a facility should therefore first turn to the distribution system responsible for the most suitable voltage in that geography. In most cases it is existing distribution systems that apply onward to the transmission grid. If a large load sits in a local application and suitability is uncertain, the portal asks for early dialogue between the distribution owner and Svenska kraftnät.

Typical cases that require a transmission application, according to the same portal, include a new import or export connection, an increase beyond the maximum power in an existing connection agreement, works in an existing station without a change in import or export, and changes in the connecting party’s installation that affect the technical capacity of an existing transmission connection. Those are process facts. They are not a queue position for a named hall in this register. Contact before filing, the portal says, can go to anslutningar@svk.se when something is unclear.

The map’s purpose is narrower than a marketing slide. Svenska kraftnät says the first version gives an overall picture of the capacity situation county by county for withdrawal and injection, for 2026. The aim is to make information easier to find and to improve dialogue among the authority, municipalities, counties, network companies and other parties. The authority will continue to develop the map. Most connections in Sweden, the page repeats, are made to regional and local networks, not to the transmission network.

The edges are printed on the same page and must be copied into every data room that uses the map. The map contains indicative information. It does not include an overview of current or future capacity in the underlying networks. It does not replace the formal connection process. Parties must follow the established application process that applies to each network company. Svenska kraftnät usually connects regional-network companies to the transmission network. References on the map to agreements on allocated or reserved capacity therefore primarily concern those regional-network companies, not other actors.

Indicative available capacity, in the authority’s wording, is the amount of capacity in the county that is assessed as available in the transmission network beyond the capacity already allocated for 2026 and used under existing connection agreements. The map shows that indication in five intervals: under 50 MW, 50–150, 150–300, 300–500, and over 500, with separate colour scales for withdrawal and injection. A darker shade indicates a higher indicative availability. Those intervals are county-level bands. They are not a reserved import for a cadastral unit in Kista, Falun or Staffanstorp.

Projects that sit earlier in the process are not in the 2026 indicative calculation. The page says projects that have not yet received a preliminary decision or an allocation that has been taken into operation are currently excluded. For projects that have not yet received a preliminary decision — reserved capacity — the reason is that their effect on the transmission network has not been fully analysed and there is greater uncertainty about whether and to what extent they will be built. For capacity that has been allocated and reserved for the future, the reason is that those figures rest on network models that include planned reinforcements, which are not in the 2026 network model.

Clicking a county, the page says, also shows a table for earlier stages. Allocated capacity 2027–2035 is the total capacity in the county where connection agreements have been signed, capacity has been allocated, and commercial operation is expected in that period. Reserved capacity 2027–2035 is the total that has been investigated, has received a preliminary decision, and has an estimated operation date in that period. Applied capacity is the total that has been applied for but has not yet begun to be investigated, and has therefore not received a preliminary decision. Because the categories sit in different time spans, and because of how the transmission network is built, the figures cannot simply be added or subtracted to produce a total spare capacity.

Two further edges matter for every geography brief in this register. Indicative available capacity per county cannot be added into a regional or national total. The intervals are based on where transmission stations sit geographically, a choice the authority made so that a first version could be published. The electricity network does not always follow county borders. Depending on how the regional network is tied to the transmission network, stations in one county can also contribute capacity in a neighbouring county. A Norrbotten colour is therefore not a Luleå plot offer, and a Stockholm County colour is not a Kista reservation.

Place the register’s projects against those words without inventing queue positions. Meta Luleå describes hydropower; that is not a published connection agreement. EcoDataCenter’s Falun press item describes securing 80 MW future power supply with Falu Energi & Vatten and Ellevio; that is operator-reported and is not filed here as a reviewed grid agreement. atNorth SWE01 states 12 MW site power capacity; that is operator wording, not a Svenska kraftnät allocation. Conapto’s 24 MW campus figure is an operator opening claim. GleSYS’s 3 MW and 5 MW rows are operator and press wording. Microsoft’s municipalities and Hydro66’s Boden record publish no megawatts. evroc’s Arlandastad notice publishes no megawatts. None of those sentences is a map interval.

Common misreads are the reason the authority printed the edges. Pasting an interval into a brochure as available power. Adding indicative 2026 figures to reserved 2027–2035 figures. Adding county bands across SE1 or SE3. Treating applied capacity as reserved. Treating reserved capacity as allocated. Treating allocated capacity as energized. Treating a regional-network agreement as a customer hall agreement. Treating SE4’s price story as a map refusal. Treating a municipal welcome as a förhandsbesked. Treating “power is secured” in a press release as an anslutningsavtal.

What to ask next is a list that fits on one page. Which network owner is the counterpart for this property, and at what voltage? Is the latest written position an inquiry reply, a reservation, a signed allocation, or an energization milestone? Which reinforcements sit on the critical path, and who pays? Does any transmission-level dialogue exist, and is it the distribution owner’s application rather than the hall owner’s? Which map year and which category was someone quoting? If the owner will not put a number on paper, record that as a gap. Unknown capacity stays unknown. It is never stored as zero.

This article proves that Svenska kraftnät has published a dated vocabulary for indicative, applied, reserved and allocated transmission-level capacity, and that the map has edges the authority wrote itself. It does not prove a spare-megawatt number for any project in this register. It does not redraw the map. It does not replace a local or regional application. Readers should leave with five labelled states and a counterpart name, not with a summed county total that the source forbids.

Why it matters

A map interval is the wrong artefact to paste into a land brochure. Svenska kraftnät already wrote the edges: indicative is not reserved, reserved is not allocated, allocated is not energized, and county bands do not add. A Swedish hall file that ignores those edges will invent megawatts the authority did not publish.

What remains unknown

This register does not publish a queue position, reserved megawatt or energization date from the map for any named project. Underlying-network capacity remains outside the map by the authority’s own delimitation.

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