For the darkest days of winter, Finland prepares for power outages
In winter, Finland can be a miserable place. Temperatures often drop below -20 degrees, and during the darkest months of the year, Helsinki gets less than six hours of light a day.
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(Bloomberg) — In the dead of winter, Finland can be a miserable place. Temperatures often dip below -20C, and in the darkest months of the year, Helsinki gets less than six hours of light a day.
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Against the elements Finland has become the EU’s most energy-intensive economy. But as winter approaches, the country is preparing for a series of blackouts designed in response to Russia’s energy outages. Although the share of Russian energy in Finland’s total supply was only a small fraction, its loss threatens to have a huge impact, and Finns will have to choose between bad alternatives.
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If the planned outages don’t happen, said Arto Pahkin, head of network operations at Fingrid Oyj, which oversees the country’s electricity grid, there would be a nationwide widespread disruption and “people could die.”
Finland is at the forefront of Europe’s energy crisis. In May, Russia stopped selling electricity and gas to the country in apparent retaliation for Ukraine’s opposition to the war and its decision to join NATO. As the countries in the region prepare for a difficult winter, Finland is particularly at risk, as a loss of energy can expose residents to threatening conditions in a few hours.
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At the same time, perhaps no country is better prepared to deal with the consequences if the power goes out.
For years, the Ministry of Defense has published leaflets on what to do in the event of a power outage, and in them it has been advised to keep battery-operated radios at home, as well as enough food, water and medical supplies for 72 hours. Even before the war in Ukraine, an estimated third of Finns had these supplies on hand.
Mervi Pirttikoski-Takala, an accountant living in the capital region, said that she is already reducing the use of electricity by turning off her underfloor heating when it is not needed.
“We’ve added extra carpets to the floors and bought torches,” said the 53-year-old, noting that the cold is a “small problem” compared to what Ukrainians are experiencing.
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What is happening now is the culmination of years of planning. In September 2014, the authorities cut off electricity to 70,000 people in the Arctic city of Rovaniemi to see how a sudden, large-scale power outage would play out in real life. The purpose of the exercise was to allow the authorities to practice the so-called blackstart, where the electricity system is brought back up without the help of imported energy. According to Pahkin, who participated in the operation, it was a wake-up call that prompted the authorities to reform their approach.
If that hadn’t happened, “we’d be in deep trouble,” he said. Since then, exercises have been organized regularly, most recently in September in Helsinki.
Although Finland has not had a power outage caused by a nationwide grid failure since 1974, the threat still exists if imports cannot be secured. Unlike its neighbors Sweden and Norway, which have abundant hydropower resources, Finland has few domestic energy resources, it buys almost all of its fossil energy and covers its deficit with imports. Relief may come in the coming months, however, when the small Nordic country finally puts Europe’s largest nuclear reactor into regular use after a delay of almost 14 years.
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Until then, Finns stock up on firewood, gas heaters and diesel generators and take matters into their own hands by reducing the use of electricity. In addition to the fact that the government has urged people to lower indoor temperatures, take shorter showers and use public transport more, the government has made its own energy-saving initiatives, which include shortening the opening hours of the parliament’s indoor sauna.
The attitude of 52-year-old former peacekeeper Marja Lyhti captures the mixture of submission and ingenuity that characterizes the Finnish approach. He has reserved food and chose tortillas and taco fillings instead of pasta and rice.
“I have a sleeping bag that keeps me warm down to -20 degrees,” he added. “I’ll take it off if I have to.”