The Energy Agency considered in the spring that there is no need for a power reserve this winter. The electricity shortage system was not in use during last winter's energy crisis either.
Authorities warned on Thursday about the possibility of an electricity shortage and urged Finns to reduce electricity consumption.
In Finland, there is a system called the power reserve for electricity shortage situations, where the authorities buy back-up production from energy companies in case the consumption of electricity exceeds the market-based production of electricity.
Tehoreserv's power plants are prepared to produce electricity if necessary against maintenance compensation.
System however, it is not in use now with winter's freezing temperatures, because the Energy Agency decided in April that there is no need for the purchase of a power reserve for the period between November 2023 and October 2024.
In the spring, the Energy Agency considered that the commissioning of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant in particular reduces major concerns about the sufficiency of electric power.
The Energy Agency made its decision based on a report made by the consulting company Afry.
According to the study's simulations, the completion of the Olkiluoto 3 power plant will reduce the average number of hours, when electricity demand is greater than production, to less than two hours per year in the next few years. Last year, the figure was approximately 33 hours.
According to the decision made by the Government in 2022, the time of power shortage may not exceed 2.1 hours per year on average.
“According to the report, the power deficit remains below this criterion, in which case there is no basis for the need for a power reserve. If the situation had been different, we would have gone to acquire a power reserve”, says the director of the Energy Agency Antti Paananen.
Power reserve the power plants are out of commercial production, and the power reserve can only be used during a power shortage, i.e. when there is not enough market-based production compared to consumption. The power reserve is not intended to lower the high price of electricity.
This week there has still been a warning about the possibility of a power shortage. Should the Energy Agency have acquired a power reserve in the spring in case of the winter consumption peak?
“Even though the prices are high, even this Friday's situation would not have been such that the power reserve would have been put into use even if it had been. There has been no power shortage,” says Paananen.
On Friday, the electricity market operated according to market conditions: the high price of electricity caused so-called demand elasticity, i.e. electricity users reduced consumption more than consumption was predicted to be.
Energy company Fortum's Meri-Pori coal-fired power plant was in power reserve for several years.
Power reserve was not in use during last winter's energy crisis either, because the Energy Agency then received only one offer from energy companies. Fortum offered the Meri-Pori coal-fired power plant for the power reserve, but the agency rejected the offer as too expensive.
Meri-Pori is in commercial production this winter and will be transferred in the spring to the Maintenance Security Center's maintenance security use for almost three years. The plant's production is reserved for “serious crisis and disruption situations” in the electricity system.
In the previous period, in addition to the Meri-Pori power plant, the Naistenlahti 1 natural gas power plant of the Tampere electric utility and the Kymijärven gas power plant of Lahti Energia were in the power reserve.
Energy companies have usually offered power plants at the end of their service life for the power reserve.
“Alternatives for plants have been a power reserve or closing and dismantling the plant,” says Paananen.
The number of power plants suitable for power reserve has decreased in Finland in recent years.
Paananen estimates that the revised legislation in 2022 has also reduced the interest of energy companies in offering power plants for power reserve. The legislation tightened the conditions under which power plants can be offered to the reserve.
The power reserve system was established in 2007. The reserve has only been used once, in the winter of 2010.
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