Rolling blackouts may come to Finland this winter
Just got home from a week in California. The weather was amazing and I wish I could bring it home to Finland with me, but instead I’m bringing California’s rolling blackouts…
A cold winter this year might stretch Finland’s energy resources past the breaking point. The country’s power grid operator Fingrid says that power cuts are a possibility. Finland does not produce enough power of its own, especially during peak seasons like Christmas and the usual post-New Year’s cold snap. Imported power from Russia accounts for as much as ten percent of Finland’s energy needs.
Fingrid now says that with Russia turning down its output in order to meet its own power needs, Finland has to prepare for the possibility of power cuts in the event of a cold winter.
“Naturally Fingrid will use all available reserves and agreements with industrial sectors about electricity rationing,” says the managing director of Fingrid, Jukka Ruusunen. “But the worst case scenario is that household power will also have to be rationed.”
[...]The major factor in dwindling power reserves is Russia’s exponential growth. Electricity which was previously reserved for export to Finland is now needed at home. In the past, the Russian government has rationed power to St. Petersburg rather than lose out on the income from selling electricity to Finland, but this is no longer the case.
I understand that trade with one’s neighbors is important, but I’m so tired of hearing our import/export blues being blamed on Russia - relying on them is like depending on a alcoholic uncle.
Fortunately UPS units are cheap nowadays. Or has everyone switched to a laptop already?
Comment by mh — Sun, Oct 28th, 2007 @ 11:09 pm
Phil, I’m tired of the whole import/export excuse being used as reasoning to keep prices for import products high in Finland, “to avoid capital flowing out of the country.” Cars cost twice europe price, for instance.
At some point Finland needs to become a true market economy and rise its standard of living to european levels. Instead of always thinking of ways to use protectionism.
To pay for new power production capability needs a successful economy to pay for it. Then this issue will resolve itself. For now, Finland is still with its head stuck in its ass.
Comment by a Finn — Sun, Oct 28th, 2007 @ 11:32 pm
Ahhhhhh…Bring it on. I just got through the firewood chop for this winter.
I hope the “city greens” will get their wines frozen.
Comment by Antti rn — Sun, Oct 28th, 2007 @ 11:41 pm
..And isn’t it funny how everyone in Finland has an alcoholic uncle? I know I have one and he’s not to be trusted :-p
Comment by Vilja — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 12:02 am
I thought these days we have a link to the Swedish (and if not beyond) power grid, so we can get get some power that way too. Although, I know that Sweden has no surplus of power either. So, perhaps it’s not that helpful.
In any case, you say we are not sorting this out ourselves, but then you must have missed the seemingly endless articles in the newspapers about were the next 2 nuclear power stations will be placed (at least Hufvudstadsbladet and my local paper are seemingly obsessed with this subject). Ruotsinpyhtää/Strömfors seems to be the latest “in” location being considered. I am not sure I feel comfortable with all these nuclear reactors down the road from me, but it seems the forthcoming Greater Loviisa (in view of the referendum result this evening) is truly to be Finland’s nuclear capital. But the power companies seem to be tripping over themselves to build new power stations. So, I think we are on the way to sorting this out and, of course, I agree that relying on Russia is clearly not a good plan as their antics elsewhere have demonstrated.
In any case, I doubt we will get an rolling blackouts here. Probably come dangerously close to the limit, but I suspect Finn Grid is just trying to encourage the need to conserve energy to make that less likely by its strong message and also to perhaps increase the urgency in approving any of those new power station projects.
Comment by JG — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 1:47 am
I think there will be a perpetual shortage of electricity, until 7th or 8th nuclear power plant is built. There’s no way a country in such a cold climate and with so high a dependence on extremely energy-consuming industry can get away with importing goddamn *electricity*, something you MUST NOT LOSE because of the political weenie-measurement contests. (There will by plenty of those considering the growth and increasing negating power of Russia.)
Comment by sepisp — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 2:51 am
Isnt that the point of the new nuclear reactors Finland are building, get rid of Finland power dependence on Russia.
Comment by Anonymous — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 11:38 am
Realtime electrity import/export stats, in case someone is interested: http://www.fingrid.fi/portal/in_english/electricity_market/state_of_power_system/
Comment by T — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 12:16 pm
The Finnish utilities wielding monopoly power through their infrastructure usually start their price hiking rounds by announcing a looming shortage. Helsinki enforced a water “pricing renewal†a couple of years ago by importing a foreign “water war guru†to give talks about the next world wars, which are going to be over clean water. Helsingin Sanomat made a big article about the guru, who after long explanation of the mechanisms of looming water shortage, at the very end of the article, mentioned offhand that “of course you in Finland will never experience such water shortagesâ€Â. Most readers probably got the “worldwide water shortage†-part.
After a while Helsinki announced that it adjusts water pricing by hiking the fixed part of a two-part tariff and lowering the variable part in such a way that, at current consumption, the total bill is about the same. They did not mention that such a structural change in prices is bound to increase the quantity consumed. Which within a few years would give them a larger income stream. Which the local city government will use. Local politicians prefer to tax people through utility bills rather than hiking the local tax, because many in the electorate do not realize that utility pricing is hidden taxation, not just covering the costs of the utilities.
The politicians need this “scare and guilt round†because it confuses a large enough part of the populace to feel somewhat guilty for using the resource. Guilty feeling is a great paralyzer of defences, a deflector of analytic thought (or any thought) on the subject, and a boost to willingness to pay. The minority that works the problem through will have no chance to raise a rebellion. One of those “Eat your veggies, people starve in Africa†- logical reasonings at work.
Since Fingrid (which owns the network) is owned by the power supplier companies (even EU has given a wag of finger on that), my bet is that after some public scare-talk on looming shortage of electricity, we will experience some increases in the market price of electricity and no shortages.
Lilius said to Leena Harkimo (kok) in a Talouselämä article a few years back that the electricity price of Finland “has to increase substantially to make the nuclear investment profitableâ€Â! And since the state owns a share of Fortum, Leena Harkimo had nothing bad to say about that. Fortum revenues give the state politicians spending monies, which even the right wing politicians cannot resist.
Finland is funny in this peculiar way: We want to think of ourselves as a western country and culture, but the way we identify with the collective and not with the individual I find very eastern. Even the market-minded Finns will tend to prefer wealthy national monopoly organizations to a population of wealthy individuals.
Comment by Mara — Mon, Oct 29th, 2007 @ 11:39 pm
Gee, just cash in on your Human Shield for oil credits with Iran.
Problem solved.
Comment by winter, "Yea, Proton Power, now in remission" — Tue, Oct 30th, 2007 @ 10:06 pm
In the Northern Lapland there’s no worries, because they get electricity from 3 countries directly: Finland, Norway and Russia. They just take what they need from the power lines and then we’ll see if there’s enough left for Southern Finland!
Comment by Powerrrr — Thu, Nov 8th, 2007 @ 11:17 pm