Vietas

A hydro power plant usually acquires its power from one body of water. However, Vietas is supplied by two. Water is transported through a 7 kilometre long tunnel from the six lakes that constitute the Suorva reservoir. Another tunnel is connected to the Satisjaure reservoir 5 kilometres away, enabling Vietas to tap water from both sources.

One of the challenges during the construction of Vietas, which intimidated even the most experienced engineers, was the fact that the bedrock in which they had to dig the tunnels consisted of “smällberg”, which is rock susceptible to rock burst. With a loud bang, large chunks of rock fell from the ceiling and walls of the tunnel, due to differing tensions in the bedrock as a result of the rock-blasting work that had to be performed during construction. This was solved by reinforcements and by covering the roof and walls with netting.

The Vietas coup

In 1971, Vietas gained national notoriety when thieves stole all the salaries due to be paid to employees. It was an ingenious coup; the thieves had gained access to the room containing the safe and marked the spot in the floor by driving a nail through it.

Using the nail as a marker, they crawled under the building in the middle of the night, sawed through the floor and used a cutting torch to open the safe. This gave them a head start of several hours before the burglary was noticed. In fact, they have managed to keep this head start, as the crime remains unsolved to this day.

The river Lule älv

Around 40 % of the energy consumed in Sweden is generated by hydro power. The river Lule älv, on which Vietas is located, is the most important river in Sweden for hydro power generation.