Calls for serious action on behalf of the Department of Civil Protection

Eg­ill Sig­munds­son, the division manager of electricity at HS Vei­tur, encourages the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management to take further measures to prevent the danger that might arise­ for the people of Grindavík and the vicinity­ in the event of a volcanic eruption that would impact or close down the construction of the Svartsengi power plant.

This was revealed at a briefing for Grindavík residents at the town’s sports center last night.

Assessed the electricity needs in the area

Sigmundsson began his address at the meeting by saying that this was not the first time HS Veitur had to deal with this type of situation.

“We had such large disturbances in the Westman Islands where the cable to the islands broke down,” he said, adding that HS Veitur’s executives believe that if Svartsengi powerplant went out, the electricity provider would be asked to carry out a much larger project.

The electricity demand in the area has been assessed and a draft of possible ways to reduce the potential damage has been drawn up.

“To address this, we’ve been in contact with Landsnet regarding diesel engines. Fortunately, they bought ten 1.2 megawatt engines two years ago. We’ve talked to them and they’re ready to bring six to seven engines to the area,” Sigmundsson.

“We’ve started preparing this as people might have noticed here in town. We’ve started preparing the foundations for this machine at several distribution centers and this is something we’ll finish just this week. But this doesn’t mean everything will be fine,” he added.

“It might be two hot-blowers”

Next, Sigmundsson explained that if the hot water supply was down, it would lead to increased­ electric­ity­ use ­in­s in­ homes, because­ electric­ity ­would­ be­ used ­to ­heat them.

We’ve been calculating this in the system, so basically anything over five kilowatts is going to be too much. Three kilowatts isn’t much, it’s maybe two hot-blowers,” said Sigmundsson, adding that you can’t keep a whole house warm with just three kilowatts, but possibly just one room.

“This is the situation,” he said  after explaining the drastic reduction that would occur if the Svartsengi powerplant was out.

Doesn’t want to be the devil’s advocate just yet

“I don’t want to be the devil’s advocate just yet, but at least this is the scenario we’re working on. The reason I mention three kilowatts is because our distribution system is not built for electricity. There is a heating source in the area, which is why we think three kilowatts is the total limit.

If we go a little higher, we have to put restrictions of use in place in the systems, which is both time-consuming and difficult, but this is just to get a little heat in one room and have a light. This is a total emergency solution that we are going to take.”

The Department of Civil Protection needs to take this seriously

Finally, Sigmundsson pointed out that the above solutions were all intended for short-term scenarios. Fortunately, it was possible to take action in the long term, but it wasn’t something that could be implemented overnight.

“I hope that this situation that occurred last week will ensure action and that something will be done in the area. And that the Department of Civil Protection and others who are in charge will start taking this seriously. There are all kinds of actions that need to be taken and this would be something that the Civil Protection could provide,” he said.

“I hope I wasn’t too pessimistic, but this is just what we see could happen.”