Photo: https://www.fingrid.fi
Finland will limit grid capacity in cross-border connections with Russia by almost a third from 24 April, Finland’s Fingrid said on Friday. The Finnish power grid operator stated that capacity will be reduced from 1,300 MW to 900 MW.
Fingrid explained its decision by “assessing the risks to the power system in a changing international environment” and the need for security of the Finnish power system.
“Now the operating capacity is between 900 and 1,100-1,300 MW – depending on the specific hours. If Finland limits the capacity, the former lower threshold, 900 MW, will become the maximum and will probably be used as much as possible,” Sergey Kondratyev, head of the Economics Department at the Institute of Energy and Finance, told InfoTEK.
The announced reduction of imported capacity, according to the expert, will affect the volume of electricity exports. In 2021, Finland accounted for about 40% of Russian supplies abroad and more than half of exports to Europe.
“That’s just over 9.2 billion kWh. If we talk about Russia’s total generation, this is not much, less than 0.9%,” said Kondratyev, – “but you have to remember that the price of electricity for the Russian market and the price of exports to Finland differ by a factor of five to six. In January, for example, supplies to Northern Europe cost $120 per MWh. So Russia (Inter RAO would account for most of the losses) would lose not so much in export volumes but in revenues”.
According to the expert’s estimates, the potential export losses may amount to about 200-300 million kWh, which in financial terms would amount to some $20-25 million per month. For Inter RAO, such losses, given the scale of the company, are not critical or even significant; however, most of these losses will fall on profits, Kondratyev pointed out.
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