Cold wave leads to record power consumption
Published : 16 Jan 2021, 01:11
Updated : 16 Jan 2021, 11:02
The hourly average electricity consumption of Finland reached this winter’s record level of about 14,230 megawatts on Friday between 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM, according to Fingrid, the national electricity transmission grid operator.
Finland produced electricity at 9,620 megawatt and the remaining 4,610 megawatts were imported from neighbouring Sweden, Russia, and Estonia, said Fingrid in a press release.
The reason behind the massive electricity consumption was the intense cold spell experienced by the entire country.
The sufficiency of electricity, however, was not at risk in the peak consumption situation.
At the beginning of December, Fingrid assessed electricity consumption and sufficiency for the winter and the present consumption peak during the cold spell was lower than the forecast.
Power plants have operated without significant disruptions, and the power reserve capacity has not yet started.
During the peak of power consumption, electricity was imported from Sweden at a capacity of about 2,500 megawatts, from Russia at 1,470 megawatts and from Estonia at 750 megawatts.
The electricity market guides the transmission of power across borders. For this reason, sufficiency should be analysed for the Baltic Sea region or even Europe as a whole. The availability of imported electricity depends on the consumption in neighbouring countries and the functionality of cross-border transmission connections. The transmission connections between Finland and neighbouring countries have functioned well during the cold spell.
The all-time record for electricity consumption was made in the winter of 2016, when consumption peaked at 15,105 MW/h.