Iran Energy News Oil, Gas, Petrochemical and Energy Field Specialized Channel
Related Articles
If Finland were to cancel its planned rotating blackouts in winter, it could lead to a large-scale national disruption, the country’s electricity grid operator has warned, according to Bloomberg.
If the outages do not continue, the resulting uncontrolled blackouts would mean “people could die,” Arto Pahkin, a network manager at Fingrid, told the news agency.
The utility has repeatedly warned of potential blackouts in the coming winter, citing “major uncertainties related to the availability of electricity.” The warnings came after Russia stopped electricity supplies to Finland in May due to non-payment for electricity to the country during that month.
Although Russian energy only made up a small fraction of the Nordic nation’s total supply, the loss of supplies threatens to have a massive impact, with Finns forced to choose between several bad options.
Temperatures in Finland in winter often drop below -20C, while cities receive less than six hours of light a day during the darkest months of the year. This makes Finland particularly vulnerable to the EU’s energy crisis, with a loss of power potentially exposing residents to life-threatening conditions within hours.
At the same time, Finland is reportedly much better prepared for power outages than other EU member states. Although the nation has not suffered a national grid failure since 1974, the population has always been encouraged to plan for such a risk. Unlike neighboring Sweden and Norway, the country has few domestic power resources and must import almost all of its fossil fuel energy.
Some relief is expected in the coming months, when the Nordic nation finally brings Europe’s largest nuclear reactor at the Olkiluoto power plant into regular use after nearly 14 years of delay.
