Windy conditions helped Finland's wind turbines generate a record-high level of electricity on Monday morning, according to grid operator Fingrid.
For a moment at 7:14 am, the turbines cranked out around 6,070 megawatts (MW), with a relatively high average power output of 5,940 MW continuing from 7-8 am, Fingrid reported.
Monday morning's wind-generated electricity output clearly exceeded that of Finland's nuclear power facilities, which averaged around 4,370 MW.
Fingrid also noted that the country produced more electricity than it needed on Monday morning. For example, electricity consumption stood at around 11,800 MW at 10:23 am, while production exceeded 13,000 MW.
A portion of that excess electricity was exported to neighbouring countries including Estonia, but due to a fault in the subsea Estlink 2 cable that was detected on Friday, less power was exported than would have been under normal conditions.
Electricity could otherwise be transferred to where it was most expensive in Europe and price spikes could be smoothed out in this way, according to Arto Pahkin, Fingrid's Main Grid Control Centre manager.
The faulty Estlink 2 cable caused Estonia — where prices were currently clearly higher than in Finland on Monday — to miss out on around 650 MWs, Pahkin said.
Fingrid said that even higher electricity generation records are still possible, as Finland's 1,601 wind turbines have a potential combined output of 6,946 MW, according to the Finnish Wind Power Association.
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