page_title: Vattenfall
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Vattenfall / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Vattenfall Headquarters in Solna (Stockholm), Sweden.
context_page_description: Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational power company owned by the Government of Sweden. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
  The company's name is Swedish for "waterfall", and is an abbreviation of its original name, Royal Waterfall Board.
context_section_description: Vattenfall (then called Kungliga Vattenfallsstyrelsen or Royal Waterfall Board) was founded in 1909 as a state-owned enterprise in Sweden. From its founding until the mid-1970s, Vattenfall's business was largely restricted to Sweden, with a focus on hydroelectric power generation. Only in 1974 did the company begin to build nuclear reactors in Sweden (the Ringhals 1 and 2 reactors), eventually owning seven of Sweden's 12 reactors. In 1992, Vattenfall was reformed as the limited liability company Vattenfall AB.
  In the years 1990 through 2009, Vattenfall expanded considerably (especially into Germany, Poland and the Netherlands), acquiring stakes in Hämeen Sähkö (1996), HEW (1999, 25.1% stake from the city of Hamburg), the Polish heat production company EW (2000, 55% stake), Elsam A/S (2005, 35.3% stake), and Nuon (2009, 49% stake, today 100%). In 2002 Vattenfall AB and its acquisitions were incorporated as Vattenfall Europe AG, making it the third-largest electricity producer in Germany.
  Following the expansion period, Vattenfall started to divest parts of its business in Denmark and Poland during the years following 2009 in a strategy to focus on three core markets: Sweden, Netherlands, and Germany. Write-downs on coal-fired and nuclear power plant assets in Germany and gas power plants in the Netherlands were necessary for a difficult market environment with increasing renewable energy market share and due to the German Nuclear power phase-out decision of 2011. In summer 2013 Vattenfall announced a write-down of the value of its assets by 29.7 billion SEK (US$4.6 billion). A major part of these write-offs were attributed to Nuon Energy NV, a Netherlands-based utility that Vattenfall purchased at an 89 billion SEK (ca. US$15 billion) price in 2009, but whose values were depreciating by 15 billion SEK (ca. US$2 billion) since. The gloomy market outlook of decreasing power prices in combination with increasing risks notably on the continental market prompted the board to revise the group strategy by splitting its organizational structure into a Nordic part and a part with operations in continental Europe and the United Kingdom as of 2014. Some analysts have perceived this strategic review as a precursor to a partial retreat from continental European activities with a shift of focus towards activities in the Scandinavian market. In this context and in response to a local referendum on re-municipilization of distribution grids, Vattenfall agreed on the sale of company-owned electricity and district-heat grids in Hamburg to the City of Hamburg in early 2014. In each of the second quarters of 2015 and 2016, Vattenfall filed impairments of SEK 28 billion, mostly due to lignite power stations in Germany. Operational financials were satisfactory. In 2019, Vattenfall reported a profit of SEK 14,861 billion with an operating profit (EBIT) of SEK 22,141 billion.
  Outside of Sweden, Vattenfall is known for forcing the Soviet government to publicly reveal the Chernobyl disaster.  The Kremlin had tried to cover up the accident for a day, but elevated radiation levels at Vattenfall's Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant forced the Kremlin to admit the accident had occurred.
caption: Vattenfall's headquarters were moved to a new building in Solna, north of Stockholm, in autumn 2012
exif: {"Image Make": "HTC", "Image Model": "HTC Desire X", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "310", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[59, 22, 8247/1000]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[18, 0, 116111/10000]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "0", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[17, 40, 2]", "GPS GPSProcessingMethod": "ASCII", "GPS GPSDate": "2013:03:18", "Image GPSInfo": "538", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "854", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "27971", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "599", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:03:18 18:40:44", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:03:18 18:40:44", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "297/100", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2592", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1552", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "508"}