Finland is waiting for record electricity prices: part of the nuclear power plant is up, the wind is falling

Finland is waiting for a repeat of the January record electricity prices. The second reactor of the Olkiluoto NPP failed. And preventive maintenance is underway at the Loviisa NPP. At the same time, wind generation is reduced. Gasum warned that electricity prices could rise to 1,000 euros per MWh.

"By the end of the week, exceptionally high and unpredictable prices may be observed on the Finnish electricity market," Kauppalehti reports with reference to the state—owned Gasum company.

They predict that spot electricity prices may rise especially from Thursday afternoon. For the evening of the day, from 19.00 to 20.00, Gasum predicts prices of 1000 euros per MWh.

"Frankly speaking, the price will not necessarily behave in accordance with this rough generalization, but, nevertheless, the risk of price growth is significant. Based on this, prices may rise significantly on Thursday evening, as wind energy production is projected to fall by about 2,000 megawatts compared to the same hour on Wednesday as on Thursday evening," Kauppalehti quotes Gasum data.

The decline in wind generation will be the last reason why there will be limited amounts of electricity in Finland. Earlier, the first reactor of the Loviisa NPP with a capacity of 440 MW was brought out for long-term preventive maintenance. Next, there was a malfunction in the turbogenerator at the second reactor of the Olkiluoto NPP with a capacity of 890 MW. He was stopped until the end of September. Both power units account for approximately 15% of electricity production in Finland.

Previously, the country has already experienced failures at nuclear power plant reactors, which led to record electricity prices. For example, according to the NordPool exchange, on January 5, the average daily wholesale price of electricity in Finland was 890 euros per MWh. So far, quotes for tomorrow have risen to a maximum of 393 euros per MWh (from 20.00 to 21.00). For these hours today, electricity was sold in the "day ahead" mode at 9 euros per MWh, while the daily average was 41 euros.

Previously, Finnish companies could compensate for the decrease in domestic generation by importing electricity from Russia. However, it stopped in 2022.