Ministry warns of a small possibility of electricity shortage as rare cold spell grips Finland

By admin On Jan 5, 2024

Overhead power cables in Helsinki on 2 January 2023. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment on Thursday said there is a low likelihood of an electricity shortage as the long-running extreme cold spell continues to push up electricity demand in Finland. (Vesa Moilanen – Lehtikuva)

THE MINISTRY of Economic Affairs and Employment on Thursday warned that there is a low likelihood of an electricity shortage as the extreme cold spell continues in Finland.

The shortage could be caused by a combination of several factors, the ministry stated: if domestic electricity production capacity does not suffice to cover demand at peak demand hours during the long and extreme cold spell and if disruptions in electricity transmission or production facilities occur simultaneously in production and import.

Domestic production capacity is being complemented with imports from Estonia and Sweden.

Fingrid, Finnish authorities and transmission network operators have devised a contingency plan for an electricity shortage. The state-owned grid operator would ask transmission network operators to impose restrictions on consumption that would affect a fairly limited number of customers for a few hours at a time.

“The power outages would be targeted in a way that societally important functions would be unaffected. The restrictions would account for an estimated two per cent of total consumption in Finland,” said the ministry.

Although the long-running extreme cold spell has placed a strain on the electricity system, the system is operating as usual.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment is nevertheless encouraging consumers, businesses and other electricity users to reduce consumption and exercise demand-side flexibility to ensure both the sufficiency of electricity capacity and lower their electricity costs. On Friday, the price of electricity on the power exchange is to surge up to 20 times higher than on an average day.

Also Fingrid on Thursday urged the public to cut back on electricity consumption during demand hours in the morning and evening, highlighting that electricity momentarily exceeded 15,000 megawatt-hours on Wednesday. Tuomas Rauhala, a director at Fingrid, said it is important that all electricity users shift consumption away from the peak hours to the extent possible.

“The challenging times today are 8–10am and 5–10pm,” he said in a press release issued just before 9am on Thursday, 4 January.

Yesterday evening, however, electricity consumption was on par with forecasts, suggesting that few paid heed to the advisory immediately.

The low temperatures are forecast to linger at least until the weekend, reminded the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. The current cold spell is an extremely rare occurrence, it added, comparable to the frigid winter experienced in the late 1980s.

Aleksi Teivainen – HT

Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi