Vacant job

Svenska kraftnät (Swedish National Grid Company) has the mission to create conditions for a socially efficient, internationally competitive, sustainable, and secure electricity supply in Sweden from a societal development perspective. This is achieved, among other things, through socially efficient measures to optimize capacity utilization in the transmission grid and contribute to electricity supply security.

The System Planning Unit has overall responsibility for Svenska kraftnät's long-term planning of the national electricity system. The unit leads, develops, and coordinates the work to produce long-term plans and strategies describing how the electricity system should evolve to meet society's need for a socially efficient, sustainable, secure, and competitive electricity supply.

The unit is further responsible for developing and coordinating frameworks, methods, and processes for long-term system planning and socio-economic analysis. The unit is also responsible for identifying and analyzing overarching choices and priorities for the future electricity system based on risk assessments and socio-economic trade-offs.

Background

As part of creating conditions for a socially efficient electricity supply, Svenska kraftnät studies and compares various measures using socio-economic analyses. To be able to propose socially efficient measures and instruments, knowledge is needed on how these measures affect market actors, including electricity consumers.

Electricity consumers can choose to either lock in their electricity price with a fixed-price contract or opt for a variable price that varies on a monthly basis or at intervals as short as 15 minutes. In Sweden, the proportion of household customers with variable contracts tends to be lower than in several other European countries, including Germany. How this contract structure affects cost pass-through to household consumers is the focus of this thesis project.

The Assignment

The task in this thesis project consists of investigating and identifying the factors that determine the cost pass-through rate to electricity consumers in a Swedish context. Furthermore, the task involves comparing how the results differ from other countries where contract structures look different, and what implications this has regarding how price signals affect electricity consumption.

As part of the thesis work, a literature study should be conducted to identify a suitable empirical model and results from other studies that can be used for comparison. Collection of data that makes it possible to apply the model in a statistical analysis should also be carried out.

The following must be submitted for the payment of the stipend to be made:

• The thesis report must be complete and available in its final version.
• A statement via email from the Svenska kraftnät supervisor confirming that the thesis student is finished from Svenska kraftnät's side. This includes that you have presented your work at Svenska kraftnät.
• A statement via email from the university supervisor confirming that the thesis student is finished from their side. This includes that you have presented your work at the university, and if applicable, participated in the defense of another's work.
• An extract from the grade register (PDF via email) showing that a passed thesis has been reported.

The scope of the assignment is 30 ECTS credits.

Your Profile/Background

We believe that a suitable candidate is studying economics or has an interest in economic issues and acquires corresponding methodological knowledge within, for example, a civil engineering program. Since the work will involve a significant amount of data analysis, good statistics or econometrics skills are a requirement, which includes experience using software for statistical analysis. We also believe that you have a social science interest and are curious about understanding how the electricity market functions.

The thesis work involves many points of contact; therefore, we expect you to have good collaboration skills. In your working style, you are analytical, proactive, and goal-oriented.

The thesis work involves a placement in Gothenburg.

You should be proficient in both Swedish and English, both spoken and written.

Since we work with important infrastructure in society, our services are security-classified, and Swedish citizenship is therefore a requirement.

For general and practical questions, we refer you primarily to Lovisa Skoglundh, tel: 010-350 9285. For specific questions regarding the assignment, we refer you to Erik Johansson, tel: 010 489 22 06.

We want your application no later than 2026-04-23; the planned start date for the thesis work is September 2026.