Maintenance of power balance

Finland's electricity consumption is the sum of all the loads connected to the grid, so it is constantly fluctuating. The level of consumption also changes over longer periods, hourly, daily and seasonally. Changes also occur in production over short and long periods.

It is the responsibility of the market operators to plan and balance their production and consumption in advance. The plans, however, always deviate from what actually happens and, as the party responsible for the system, it is Fingrid's task to take care of the balance between consumption and production during each hour.

The balance between consumption and production at any given moment is indicated by the frequency of the electricity grid. The frequency falls below the nominal value of 50 Hz when consumption is greater than production. Correspondingly, the frequency exceeds the 50 Hz value, when production is greater than consumption. The frequency is allowed to fluctuate between 49.9 and 50.1 Hz in normal state.

Fingrid ensures the balance between consumption and production by activating regulating bids from the balancing power markets and by reserving capacity. Fingrid acquires different reserve products that react to changes in consumption and production at different levels of time. You can find out more about reserves here. In addition to reserves maintained by Fingrid, Finland also has a peak load reserve system.

Peak load reserve safeguards the reliable supply of electricity in situations where a planned purchase of electricity is insufficient to cover the forecast consumption of electricity. Both power plants and loads may serve as peak load reserve.

Power plants that act as peak load reserve are fully reserved for the use of the peak load reserve system so they cannot participate in the commercial market. Find out more about the peak load reserve system here.