Despite Elenia’s Investments of Over 1.5 Billion Euros in Security of Supply, the Impact of Storm Jari was Severe

Mr. Myllymäki highlights the serious weakening of the new regulatory methods to improve the security of supply of electricity distribution and repair outages caused by extreme weather. Due to the regulatory methods that came into force on 1 Jan 2024, Elenia has had to cut its investments this year by 40 million euros.

“When there is less work to do, our contractors have also had to adapt. This has directly reduced the number of electricians in normal work and during disruptions. The same professionals are renewing the aging electricity network and repairing the network damaged by extreme weather during major disruptions. This development could have been avoided by ensuring the continuity of the regulatory methods. The Energy Authority changed them without a proper impact assessment. The valid concerns of the DSOs were not heard, and the effects can be seen now,” says Mr. Myllymäki.

Drastic impact and significant costs of storm Jari

Of Elenia’s 76,600 kilometer long electricity network, 26,000 kilometers are still overhead power lines. The storm caused serious damage to long-distance overhead power lines in vast areas. The storm, with winds blowing from an unusual direction, took its strength from warm lake waters and felled large trees in frost-free land areas.

Heavy snowfall made trees heavier, causing more trees to fall. The network suffered severe damage especially in Pirkanmaa and Central Finland.

Elenia has estimated that the total costs of the storm will be approximately 6 million euros. The company will automatically pay its customers legal outage compensations for power outages lasting over 12 hours, totaling approximately 4.2 million euros. Elenia’s own compensation for power outages lasting over 6 hours, totals 0.15 million euros. The repair costs of the grid will rise to approximately 2 million euros. The storm is expected to be classified as a category 4 storm, meaning that the costs are treated as exceptional and non-recurring for covenant calculation purposes.

Facts about the storm Jari on Elenia

• Over 1,400 fault repair tasks
• The number and duration of long outages is the highest in nine years
• At its worst, 29,800 Elenia’s customers were without power simultaneously
• A total of 130,000 Elenia’s customers experienced power outages of varying severity
• Over 12-hour long outages affected 16,700 customers
• Over 72-hour long outages affected 1,800 customers
• 6,000 customer calls, almost 2,000 customer fault reports
• Extremely challenging, sometimes dangerous traffic conditions for repair crews
• Difficulties in getting machinery to the site on minor roads in sparsely populated areas
• Extensive clearing of fallen trees needed ahead of repair work on the electricity network
• Special equipment for repair work: excavators, helicopters, drones, hydrocopters, boats and body trucks