The electricity production record in Finland was set this weekend as output surged to 15,438 megawatts (MW) during a 15‑minute period on Saturday evening, even while the country was close to an all‑time high in consumption during an intense cold spell. Industry group Finnish Energy said Finland kept exporting electricity despite near‑peak demand — a signal of how rapidly wind power and other fossil‑free sources have changed the country’s power balance.
What drove the new output record
Finnish Energy Managing Director Jukka Leskelä attributed the record primarily to brisk winds, which boosted wind generation at a moment when electricity demand was also elevated by freezing temperatures across much of the country.
The timing matters: Finland’s coldest days typically coincide with high heating demand, and in previous winters that combination often pushed the country into net imports. This weekend, however, the wind conditions meant that high demand did not automatically translate into an import peak.
Peak demand reached a new high earlier in the week
The production surge came just days after Finland’s national transmission system operator Fingrid reported a new all‑time record in electricity consumption. Fingrid said demand reached 15,553 MW between 17:00 and 17:15 EET on Thursday (8 January 2026), the highest 15‑minute average on record.
Fingrid’s open data also shows that domestic production reached 14,327 MW in the same 15‑minute window on Thursday, a record for measured production in its dataset (which starts in 2010). Taken together, the figures underline how close Finland came to meeting extreme demand peaks largely with domestic generation.
Why Finland was still exporting electricity
Leskelä described continued exports during near‑peak consumption as “a new thing” for Finland. By Sunday afternoon, Fingrid’s real‑time balance still showed Finland narrowly remaining a net exporter, with both production and consumption hovering around 13,000 MW.
This matters not only for Finland but for the wider Nordic power market. Finland is tightly connected to neighbouring systems through interconnectors to Sweden and Estonia, and cross‑border flows shift quickly with weather, outages and price signals.
In practical terms, being able to export during a cold snap suggests that Finland’s winter resilience increasingly depends on a combination of high wind output, nuclear baseload, and functioning interconnections — rather than on fossil‑fuel generation or emergency imports.
Prices stayed moderate despite the cold
Fingrid has also pointed to electricity prices as part of the story behind record demand. During the week, the grid operator noted that while freezing temperatures drove demand up, moderate prices likely meant households and businesses did not cut consumption in anticipation of high bills.
On Sunday, the average spot price was reported at about 11.80 cents per kilowatt-hour (roughly €0.118/kWh). The contrast with recent energy‑crisis peaks remains striking: Finland briefly recorded a highest‑ever spot price of €2.35/kWh on 5 January 2024, highlighting how volatile the market can be under tight supply conditions.
Wind and nuclear are reshaping Finland’s power mix
Finland’s ability to combine high output with high demand sits inside a broader structural shift.
According to Statistics Finland, 95% of Finland’s electricity production in 2024 was fossil‑free (nuclear, wind, hydropower, solar and renewable fuels). Wind power overtook hydropower as the second‑largest mode of electricity production in 2024, covering 37% of consumption, just behind nuclear power at 38%.
The expansion has continued. Renewables Finland reported that 1,023 MW of new wind capacity was completed in 2025, lifting total installed wind power capacity to 9,433 MW. On the solar side, the same organisation said industrial‑scale solar capacity grew rapidly in 2025, reaching roughly 352 MW by year‑end.
This growth helps explain why extreme winter demand is no longer automatically a stress test for supply, even if wind remains weather‑dependent and production can swing sharply from hour to hour.
