Twenty-five years of open electricity markets have gone by in a flash. The markets have expanded, and marketplaces and connections have improved, writes Fingrid’s Executive Vice President Asta Sihvonen-Punkka.
We asked four electricity market specialists how they see electricity markets developing and the Nordic Balancing Model progressing as representatives of their organisations. The responses reveal concerns over the continued transparency of electricity markets and the costs of the Nordic balancing model. There is work still to be done, as the 15-minute imbalance settlement period will require a substantial change to electricity metering.
In the electricity market, 2020 has been a historically unique year. In this column, three specialists from Power-Deriva – Mika Laakkonen, Ville Venäläinen and Antti Martikainen – describe how 2020 has been a unique year for the electricity market from their perspectives.
For the first time, the price of electricity in the day-ahead market in Finland and Sweden turned negative for a few hours in February 2020 and again in July. On the road towards a climate-neutral power system, it is likely that electricity prices will turn negative again for a few occasional hours.
The transmission system is designed with the objective of maintaining a large transfer capacity so it is not necessary to limit power transmission. This ensures that there is a single price area in Finland.
Competition for customers and improvements to profitability are driving electricity companies to work together. Several new national operators have entered the electricity retail market via corporate acquisitions as local electricity companies have consolidated their sales operations. Further consolidation is to be expected in the electricity industry.
The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) vision for 2030 has sparked debate of a revolution in the power system and the consequent opportunities and threats to the power system. The vision combines the simultaneous development of markets and operators and asks what should be done when the markets are harnessed for the good of the energy revolution.
Joachim Vanzetta, Chair of the Board for ENTSO-E, believes that the TSOs in ENTSO-E will continue to strive to find the right balance between the dimensions of the energy trilemma: sustainability, affordability and security of supply/system security.
The first decade of the ENTSO-E, founded ten years ago, has been full of changes. But the pace of the organisation will not slow down in the future, and one of the reasons for this is the energy transition. What is certain is that European cooperation will only become more important in the future.
Oksasen Puutarha specialises in cultivating lettuces. The company, which is based in the north of Turku, has been providing the frequency containment reserve for disturbances (FCR-D) and demand response for two years now. The provision of FCR-D causes the lights to go out in the greenhouse a few times a month, as agreed, in return for payments to Oksasen Puutarha.
Fingrid Oyj
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00620 Helsinki
Tel. 030 395 5267
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Fingrid is Finland’s transmission system operator. We secure reliable electricity cost effectively for our customers and society, and shape the clean, market-oriented power system of the future.
