On Wednesday, Finnish consumers experienced this autumn’s record spot price for electricity on the stock exchange, with high rates projected again for Thursday.
According to the Nordpool, the price is set to rise to 43 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) around 9am on Thursday. It is expected to stay over 30 cents from 7am until 1pm.
Nighttime rates will be significantly cheaper thanks to increased availability of wind power. Eastern Finland-based utility Lumme Energia predicts that wind power output will increase towards the weekend.
Last week, electricity was relatively cheap for the time of year. However, September also brought price fluctuations due to exceptionally mild weather along with maintenance and repair work at power plants in Finland and neighbouring Sweden. Last month, the price peaked around 50 cents per kWh.
Olkiluoto 2 to resume limited production
For almost a month, prices have been pushed up by a generator failure at the Olkiluoto 2 nuclear reactor in southwest Finland, coupled with ongoing maintenance and repair work on cross-border transmission connections with Sweden.
Annual maintenance is also underway at the Loviisa nuclear power plant in the southeast, which is scheduled to be completed by Saturday.
The Olkiluoto 2 unit is expected to finally return to limited use on Sunday. However, its production will remain lower than usual for several months. The plant owner TVO says that the reactor will operate from Sunday with an output of 725 MW rather than its full capacity of 890 MW.
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