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19.7.2018 09:56
Disturbances

Risk of electricity shortage in Finland on Thursday, 19 July

As the result of a fire in the current transformer at Fingrid’s Olkiluoto substation on Wednesday, 18 July, and the repairs at the substation, both nuclear power plant units no. 1 and 2 at Olkiluoto were disconnected from the grid.

The domestic production and imports of electricity will possibly be insufficient to meet electricity consumption. Fingrid is prepared to start up reserve power plants to secure the balance between the production and consumption of electricity, if needed.

Fingrid has asked electricity market parties and distribution system operators to prepare for the situation, which means that the risk of electricity shortage is possible. In other respects, Finland’s main grid is operating normally. The work to repair the defective substation is continuing, in order to reconnect the power plants to the grid as soon as possible.

For more information on how the situation is developing, please visit Fingrid’s website www.fingrid.fi and Twitter account (Fingrid_oyj).

Further information: Reima Päivinen, Senior Vice President, tel. +358 40 556 2662

Arto Pahkin, Control Room Manager, tel. +358 400 756 146

Media contacts: viestinta@fingrid.fi, Marjaana Kivioja, Communications Manager, tel. +358 400 773 181

 

Updates will be posted in the Finnish version of this press release.

 

Key Facts

Situations related to managing electricity shortages are divided into three levels based on severity:

  • 1. Electricity shortage possible (strained power balance) describes a situation where domestic production and imports are not expected to be sufficient to cover electricity consumption within the next few hours or 24-hour period.
  • 2. A high risk of electricity shortage (power shortage) is considered to exist when all of the electricity production available in Finland is in use and it is not possible to import more electricity from neighbouring countries. Fingrid has had to start up reserve power plants to secure the electricity supply.
  • 3. An electricity shortage (serious power shortage) is considered to have occurred when electricity production and imports are not enough to cover consumption and some electricity consumption has to be switched off. Distribution system operators switch off consumption so that power outages last no more than two hours and outages are not targeted at society’s key functions.