Finland’s margin in electricity is really thin

Finland’s electricity system proved its functionality even during the exceptionally long frost period at the beginning of the year, the Finnish grid company Fingrid praises in its quarterly review of the beginning of the year.

There is a reason. Between January and March, new records were set in Finland both in electricity consumption and production. The all-time consumption record of 15,553 megawatts was set on January 8, when the high consumption was especially related to the cold winter weather and the growth of electric district heating.

However, the Finnish electricity system worked normally and there was no electricity shortage. Domestic production together with border connections, i.e. Sweden and Estonia, was enough to cover the demand.

The production record of 15,475 megawatts was created on January 10. The new Aurora Line connection between northern Finland and northern Sweden has had a significant impact on the supply and price of electricity.

Still, all is not well. CEO of Fingrid Asta Sihvonen-Punkka highlights the sufficiency of electricity in cold and windless moments, the length of which can vary from days to weeks.

“There was no longer much margin in the electricity system, and the failure of a large production plant or a key cross-border connection could have caused a clear shortage of electricity, depending on the weather and demand situation,” states the CEO.

In practice, the margin was so thin that the failure of Olkiluoto’s first or second unit, let alone the third, or the failure of the Loviisa nuclear power plants would have brought a crisis to the Finnish electricity market. Likewise, the failure of cross-border connections, and especially the Aurora Line, would be a real problem for Finland in a cold, freezing winter.

Electricity reserves already over 1000 megawatts

The problem is particularly accentuated during long, freezing winters, because the devices and networks usually have to operate for a long time at maximum power, which in itself increases the risk of the devices breaking.

At Fingrid, however, we are satisfied that the risks may decrease slightly in the future, as the amount of electricity storage in Finland has grown rapidly. Their combined power has already exceeded 1,000 megawatts. The longer the storages are able to provide power in the future, the more controlled the system would be.

The development now supports the flexibility of the electricity system, but according to Fingrid, it requires careful prioritization of the transmission and connection capacity, so that the electricity storages are placed in the grid appropriately and their capacity does not slow down the connection of location-dependent electricity consumption projects to the grid.