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Swedish reactor shutdowns nearly double Finland's electricity price overnight

A short circuit encountered during maintenance near Stockholm forced the closure of two nuclear reactors in Forsmark, Sweden.

Aerial photo of two nuclear power reactors with a field in the background.
The Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant provides Sweden with around 14 percent of its overall electricity output. Image: EPA
  • Yle News

A shutdown of two nuclear reactors in Sweden on Wednesday caused the price of electricity in Finland to nearly double on Thursday.

Sweden's Forsmark 1 and 2 reactors were turned off due to a short circuit during maintenance work at a Svenska kraftnät electricity transmission station north of Stockholm.

The incident caused a number of power outages in the Swedish capital on Wednesday, also disrupting the city's subway service and public broadcaster SVT's TV and radio broadcasts.

Forsmark's third reactor was not shut down.

According to SVT, Forsmark was preparing to start up one of the reactors on Thursday morning and the second one on Friday.

The incident in Sweden was also noted by Finnish power grid operator Fingrid, announcing on Wednesday morning that it detected a disturbance in the power supply but managed to get supply from other sources.

Electricity customers that pay hourly prices in Finland will also notice the knock-on effect of the Swedish reactors' shutdown, as the KWh price nearly doubled on Thursday, compared to the previous day.

At 8am on Wednesday, electricity cost about 10 cents/KWh, and at the same time on Thursday morning, the KWh price stood at 18 cents. The overall daily price was also more expensive, jumping from 7.26 cents on Wednesday to 12.37 cents per KWh.

Day-ahead market prices are set one day in advance, according to Nordpool.

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