Fingrid aims to offer as much transmission capacity as possible to its customers and the electricity market without jeopardising the main grid’s system security or disrupting the electricity market.
The main grid must be resilient and remain functional under all circumstances, including, for example, during faults in transmission lines or connections and network construction.
Fingrid resorts to transmission management if electricity transmission volumes seem likely to exceed the network’s transmission capacity.
Economically rational timing
Transmission management is largely systematic and predictable.
“For example, we know years in advance when maintenance is planned at nuclear power plants. We are informed about 18 months in advance when Fingrid and the neighbouring countries’ transmission system operators need to implement transmission outages affecting cross-border connections and transmission capacities,” says Tuomo Mäkihannu, Expert at Fingrid.
Fingrid plans major transmission outages that affect the electricity market every autumn.
“Fingrid must also consider Finland’s economic interests when managing transmission.”
“When a transmission outage requires restrictions to the transmission capacity, we aim to schedule it outside the times of peak demand for electricity transmission. We notify customers as soon as we can and, if necessary, make agreements with them on the scheduling.”
Mäkihannu notes that Fingrid must also consider Finland’s economic interests when managing transmission. Restrictions must not cause unnecessary electricity price spikes.
Market-oriented approach creates opportunities
Our society is becoming increasingly electricity-intensive as industry and, for example, urban heating are electrified. At the same time, electricity production, consumption, and transmission are increasingly dependent on the weather.
This trend has made transmission peaks more common and more pronounced.
“As electricity production and consumption become more market-based, we hope Fingrid will gain additional resources for real-time transmission management. However, this requires the marketplaces to develop further and parties to be active,” Mäkihannu says.
“The more electricity production and consumption units of all sizes that can participate in the reserve market, the more we can manage transmission regionally. All electricity market parties will benefit from this.”
Transmission management needs are growing as the green transition progresses, and Fingrid is considering new ways to meet these needs. The new tools for this could include flexible connections and a flexible main grid service.
In addition, Fingrid is collaborating with Helen Sähköverkko to experiment with a new common transmission management marketplace for the main grid and distribution networks.
