Olkiluoto 3 Begins Annual Maintenance Today, Causes Immediate Surge in Exchange Electricity Prices

Today marks the commencement of the annual maintenance of Olkiluoto 3, which is recognized as Finland’s largest power plant. The maintenance shutdown, which begins from today, Saturday, will disconnect the nuclear power plant unit from electricity production for a duration of approximately 37 days.

As of Saturday afternoon, Olkiluoto 3 continued to generate electricity, albeit at a considerably lower power. The withdrawal of Voimala from the electricity market will have an instant impact on the electricity exchange prices.

The implications of this withdrawal will see the taxable average price of exchange electricity surge to more than 8.5 cents per kilowatt hour starting from Sunday. Comparatively, the average price of stock electricity on Saturday is slightly above 5.5 cents per kilowatt hour.

The peak price is scheduled to be on Sunday evening, particularly between eleven and twelve o’clock. At this time, the electricity on the exchange will cost slightly more than 12 cents per kilowatt hour. On the contrary, the highest price on Saturday is pegged at about eight cents per kilowatt hour.

To put this into perspective, the average price of stock exchange electricity in February was recorded at 6.5 cents per kilowatt hour.

Accommodations have also been made towards the maintenance of Olkiluoto 3. For instance, Fortum’s decision to postpone the transition of the Meri-Pori coal plant to back-up operation by a month has been made in an effort to minimize the risk of an electricity shortage. Originally, the Meri-Pori power plant was slated to switch to backup operation last Friday.