Electricity supplies from Russia to Finland were cut on Saturday after power chiefs carried out their threat to stop the flow. 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.
The move came as Finnish politicians announced their plan to join the international defence group NATO.
Bosses of Fingrid, the Finnish electricity network, say the country can cope without imports of electricity from Russia. Just under 10 percent off the electricity consumed in Finland comes from Russia.
“The lack of electricity import from Russia will be compensated by importing more electricity from Sweden and by generating more electricity in Finland,” said Reima Päivinen, senior vice-president of power system operations at Fingrid.
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.”
Credit: rfi.fr
