The daily stock market electricity price fluctuations are now tens of cents depending on wind, rainfall, repairs and maintenance of nuclear facilities, the situation of electricity transmission between Finland and Sweden, and finally consumption.
On Wednesday, the taxable exchange price rose to around 63 cents per kilowatt hour at its worst, and today the price rises to over 43 cents at its highest, while the cheapest hour costs a little over six cents per kilowatt hour.
The volatility of electricity prices is huge now. For consumers, the electricity market has turned into a complex tangle, where the consumers’ own activity in the use of electricity is crucial in order to minimize the energy prices of the electricity bill.
And to make the situation not too easy, electricity transmission has become an increasingly large part of consumers’ electricity bills.
The construction of a weather-proof electricity grid and the significant increase of renewable energy and the decline of stable fossil production in the electricity market have decisively changed the energy system from before.
Exchange electricity price fluctuations and price spikes, both up and down, will be commonplace for the next few years. Few people hope for them, but it is precisely the large fluctuations in the price of electricity that act as an incentive to react more precisely to the use of electricity.
An interesting question is, for example, whether zero electricity prices will be realized in the future in the same way as today, when everyone tries to use the cheap electricity prices as efficiently as possible. And reduces usage when the price of electricity is at a low.
Helsinki Energy Company Helen I’m talking about the significant development of the electricity flexibility market, because the need for flexibility is increasing due to electricity and heat storage, as well as the consumption of electricity customers and industry, as well as the flexibility of urban district heating systems.
According to Helen, flexible solutions should be allowed to be created according to market conditions, and the company is not enthusiastic about, for example, Fortum’s consideration of creating a capacity market.
What is clear, however, is that Finland as a society is electrifying more all the time, and this will require significant additional investments in the coming years.
In its vision of the energy industry, the organization calculates in its scenario that Finland needs annual investments of 2.7–6.9 billion euros until 2040.
The electricity market has changed irreversibly. Users are forced to change with the market. The market must and should be developed, but there is no return to the fossil age, even though such a thing has sometimes been hoped for.
In a more ambitious scenario, the investment need for the much-talked-about electricity distribution networks would be 1.2 billion euros per year. The network company’s realized net investments in recent years have ranged from 800 to 1,000 million euros.
What they will be in the future is still a mystery. The Energy Agency moderated the profit level of network companies and, for example, Finland’s largest network company Caruna calculated that during the years 2024–2027 it will be able to make investments of 345 million euros in networks instead of the necessary 591 million euros.
The drop in investment is therefore quite substantial. Is it the same for all 77 electricity network companies in Finland? We’ll find out later.
The electricity market has changed irreversibly. Users are forced to change with the market. The market must and should be developed, but there is no return to the fossil age, even though such a thing has sometimes been hoped for.