VE-Milgrid: the platform that keeps running when the grid doesn't
When Mats Balkö, Head of Development & Sustainability at Varberg Energi, describes the challenge in Dagens Industri, he doesn't mince words:
“We have long relied on diesel in a crisis, but that's no longer enough.”
Mats Balkö, Head of Development & Sustainability, Varberg Energi
The problem is well known. But Varberg Energi's vision behind VE-Milgrid is one of the clearest articulations we've seen of what Swedish energy preparedness actually needs to look like.
The problem behind the brief
Cyber attacks, sabotage and war on Europe's doorstep have made the threats to the power system concrete. At the same time, Sweden's dependence on electricity is growing in step with electrification, while preparedness lags behind. Experiences from Ukraine point to a clear pattern: cyber attacks are prepared in several phases and then combined with physical attacks on lines and facilities. When that happens, critical functions, industry and defence still have to work.
Despite this, many buildings and industries today have no way to take in external power when the central grid is down. That's where the big gap lies.
The platform
VE-Milgrid is a digital platform that lets defence, civil defence, municipalities and industry control and combine different energy sources — diesel, batteries, wind, solar — and, when needed, switch to island mode. Resources can be moved to where they're needed, and critical nodes can be brought back online even when parts of the grid are out of service.
Varberg Energi has demonstrated the principle in practice with electric trucks as mobile batteries, capable of restoring a knocked-out section of the grid. It's a concrete example of the decentralised idea the whole platform rests on: distributed production, mobile energy, rapid recovery.
The idea and vision came from Varberg Energi. Our job has been to design and build a platform that lives up to it.
Our role
At Fore we've designed and developed the platform together with Varberg Energi from the ground up. We've worked together for many years, and VE-Milgrid is the result of trust built over time, shared thinking and iterative work.
For us this is genuinely meaningful work. It comes down to something concrete: critical functions, industry and defence have to keep working — whether the grid is down because of a cyber attack, sabotage, or just because the wind isn't blowing. The technology is here. Now it's about using it.
“With their deep expertise and understanding of the energy industry, Fore has been instrumental in the rapid development of new solutions. It has been absolutely decisive in how well we've succeeded with what we do.”
Mats Balkö, Head of Development & Sustainability, Varberg Energi
About Varberg Energi
Varberg Energi is a municipally owned energy company working towards a more resilient society through decentralised electricity production, mobile battery solutions and new forms of energy preparedness for defence, municipalities and industry.
About Fore Development
Fore Development is a product and consulting company based in Gothenburg, with deep expertise in energy and software development. Fore is the design and development partner behind VE-Milgrid and also builds Energisystemet™, a digital infrastructure for energy companies.
- — fore.dev
Contact
Martin Hellgren — CEO, Fore Development
Mats Balkö — Head of Business Development & Sustainability, Varberg Energi AB