“This decade’s most significant investment in Finland’s grid,” the grid company said Fingridwhen the new 400 kilovolt, 700 megawatt Aurora line between Finland and Sweden, which cost about 400 million euros, was commissioned a week ago.
Experts have estimated that the new transmission connection will not only bring stability to Finnish electricity users, but also cheap hydroelectricity in Northern Sweden. This year, electricity in Finland has been almost three times more expensive than in Sweden’s northern price areas.
The Aurora line increased Sweden’s transmission power to Finland to a total of 3,100 megawatts. It can be compared to Olkiluoto 3’s 1,600 megawatts. However, large gross figures do not tell the whole truth. Compared to last year, about 300 megawatts of combined electricity and heat production power plants have already been decommissioned – which would be needed just in the cold seasons.
No electricity sales have been seen in Finland during the last week, on the contrary. The tax-free weekly price of stock exchange electricity rose in Finland last week on weekdays already to around 116 euros per megawatt hour, i.e. taking into account value added tax to around 14.5 cents per kilowatt hour.
The practical effect of the Aurora line clearly shows that there is no silver bullet in terms of stabilizing the price of electricity, but large fluctuations in the price of electricity are part of the characteristics of the entire electricity market.
Price fluctuations can be really sharp. For example, in October the Taxable average price of electricity was 6.14 cents per kilowatt hour, but the lowest price was -0.003 cents and the highest price was 71.81 cents per kilowatt hour. During the day, electricity cost twice as much as at night.
Consumers are not forced to switch to stock exchange electricity pricing, but they can pay a clearly higher premium to providers now and in the future for a fixed and stable price.
Of course, the beginning of winter sent the market price of electricity skyrocketing in the entire Nordic region, up to Northern Norway. The price of electricity is now constantly more dependent on fluctuating weather conditions in addition to traditional supply and demand.
This can be seen especially in Finland, where the wind power capacity is already around 9,000 megawatts, but during the cold and windy days of last week, less than 200 megawatts of power could be used at worst.
Although many have doubted whether Finland will really benefit from the hydroelectricity of Northern Sweden, the answer is clear. Useful as long as cheap electricity is available in Sweden. How long this benefit lasts depends on the success of the industrial projects in northern Sweden.
With Aurora’s 700 megawatt additional power and not even Sweden’s entire transmission power, it is possible to replace the thousands of megawatts of wind power lost in Finland’s windless and often cold periods. At the same time, you have to remember that Finland is also a transit country for electricity to Estonia and the Baltics.
Although many have doubted whether Finland will really benefit from the hydroelectricity of Northern Sweden, the answer is clear. Useful as long as cheap electricity is available in Sweden. How long this benefit lasts depends on the success of the industrial projects in Northern Sweden.
Fingrid is already planning another Aurora line together Swedish Power Grid with. Its construction would possibly start in 2031.