By John Ikani
Electricity supplies from Russia to Finland were cut on Saturday after power chiefs carried out their threat to stop the flow.
The move came hours after RAO Nordic, the company responsible for sales of Russian electricity to Finland, said on Friday it would end sales at midnight because of unpaid bills.
It is believed to be Russia’s response to Finnish politicians announcement of their plan to join the international defence group NATO.
Finnish majority-state-owned utility Fortum had already suspended electricity imports via a transmission line to Imatra on the eastern border.
State transmission system operator Fingrid had also limited remaining Russian exports in late April, so that they only accounted for about 10 percent of Finland’s consumption.
Finland need not worry about an electricity shortage, according to Reima Päivinen, Senior Vice President of Finland’s.
However, he said that the Russia cut-off will push up the price of electricity, which has already risen significantly this year.
“The lack of electricity import from Russia will be compensated by importing more electricity from Sweden and by generating more electricity in Finland,” said Päivinen.
A Fingrid spokesperson added: “Finland’s self-sufficiency in electricity generation is constantly improving. In particular, the amount of Finnish wind power generation is increasing every year and Finland is expected to become self-sufficient in electrical energy in 2023.”
