The new balance service fees will come into effect on January 1, 2025

Fingrid will raise the balance service fees for balance responsible parties from 1 January 2025. The increase is due to the rising costs of managing the electricity system, primarily driven by the significant need to increase the procurement of reserve capacity for the power system.

Fingrid is responsible for managing the balance between electricity consumption and production in Finland. This responsibility is handled through the balance service. Balance service fees cover the implementation of the national balance service and balance electricity trading, the development of systems and processes related to the balance service, and the costs arising from power system reserves (mFRR, aFRR, and FCR-N). Balance power purchases and sales to manage imbalances are energy-based.  

The costs of managing the electricity system are increasing, which is why the volume fee for production and consumption charged to balance responsible parties will rise to 1.73 euros per megawatt-hour starting from January 1, 2025. The current volume fee is 1.33 euros per megawatt-hour. Other balance service fees will remain unchanged. Power system reserves are used to maintain the frequency and quality of electricity at the target level. Fingrid uses these reserves to balance the electricity system, acquiring them on a market basis from various reserve marketplaces in Finland and the Nordic. 

The increase in balance service fees primarily addresses the growth in the procurement volumes of power system reserves related to the balance service, as well as the rising costs resulting from the activation of these reserves. 

Fingrid is developing reserve markets with the aim of increasing supply and expanding the markets geographically. The reserve markets have expanded and will continue to expand. Larger markets increase supply and competition, providing market participants with broader trading opportunities, which brings cost efficiency to the procurement of reserves. The maintenance and development costs of the marketplaces are covered by balance service fees. 

Power system reserves maintain the frequency of the power system and the quality of electricity at the target level. Fingrid uses these reserves to balance the power system, which are purchased in different reserve marketplaces in both Finland and the Nordic countries.  

 Changes in electricity market conditions, fluctuations in reserve market prices, and the increasing need for reserve volume procurement required by the energy transition add unpredictable variability to Fingrid's balancing service costs. The price of reserves and imbalance is significantly influenced by the available adjustment capacity of the power system and the size of the balance responsible parties' imbalance. 

Balance service fees are valid until further notice. Balance service fees and the costs of the balance service are monitored and the payments are adjusted to cover changes in the operations’ costs.  

 Further information:  

Jani Piipponen, Manager, balance services, Fingrid Oyj, tel. +358 30 395 4186  
Emails are in the format firstname.lastname@fingrid.fi  

Euros/megawatt-hour are converted to euros/kilowatt-hour or cents/kilowatt-hour using the following formula: 1.73 €/MWh = 0.00173 €/kWh = 0.173 ct/kWh