Finland is threatened with an electricity shortage – A worrying assessment from an expert

The sufficiency of electricity is deteriorating both in Finland and in Europe.

The growth is mainly explained by new data centers and the growing energy demand of industry. In addition, electricity consumption is increased by the fact that the heating of more and more homes and properties will work with electricity in the future.

Network company Fingrid discussed electricity sufficiency in his webinar held on October 6.

Challenges in Finland are caused by the fact that, while electricity consumption and weather-dependent production are increasing, adjustable production is leaving the market due to its low profitability.

The situation can lead to an electricity shortage when the electricity system cannot cover all the required consumption, Fingrid’s specialist Jussi Närhi tells.

According to Närhe, electricity shortages can appear as short-term power shortages due to, for example, sudden breakdowns of power plants, or as a longer-term shortage due to, for example, long-lasting severe frost.

Electricity sufficiency is a Europe-wide challenge. Fingrid’s expert Jutta Kallanton’s story According to

“In Finland, the level is reasonable now, but it will weaken as we move into the 2030s,” says Kallanto.

The challenge is the cold and data centers

Finland is one of the coldest countries in the EU. Freezing periods are indeed a big challenge for Finland, because heating buildings with electricity increases consumption in winter frosts. More and more buildings are heated with electricity, which increases the need for electricity even more.

At the same time, Finland is abandoning coal-fired power plants and moving more and more to wind power. Electricity production is becoming more and more dependent on the weather, which is why there may be a shortage of electricity on days with little wind.

Expert Risto Kuunen in the future, a large part of the consumption of European data centers will be in Finland, which, according to Kuunen, is a “significant amount”. The coming of data centers to Finland is indeed a challenge in terms of electricity sufficiency.

New electricity transmission connections to neighboring countries will help fill the gap. In addition, wind and solar power cover most of the output of production growth, but Finland also needs more of its own electricity production in case of situations when there is not enough wind.

However, according to Kuunen, the predicted growth in production requires a lot of new investment decisions, because the current decisions alone are not enough to reach the level of 2030.

According to Fingrid’s estimates, Finland needs about 1,000 megawatts of new and weather-independent control power by 2030 due to the increase in electricity consumption.

According to Kuusen, the need will probably not be met.

“These investments are in such a hurry,” says Kuusi.