Russia's Inter RAO to halt power exports to Finland due lack of payment (updated)

INTER RAO Lietuva AB

13/05/2022 17:01

(Adds detail, quote)
    By Anna Pruchnicka and Essi Lehto
    HELSINKI, May 13 (Reuters) - Russian utility Inter RAO
 IRAO.MM  will stop exporting electricity to Finland from
Saturday at 0100 local-time (Friday at 2200 GMT) as it had not
been paid, the Finnish grid company said on Friday. 
    The trade in electricity imported from Russia will be
suspended "for the time being" due to difficulties in receiving
payments for electricity sold on the market, Fingrid said in a
statement, citing Inter RAO. 
    "There is no threat to the adequacy of electricity in
Finland," the grid said, adding that power from Russia accounted
for some 10% of Finland's total power consumption.
    "Missing imports can be replaced in the electricity market
by importing more electricity from Sweden and partly also by
domestic production," it added. 
    Fingrid said Nord Pool, the pan-European power exchange, had
not paid Inter RAO since May 6 for electricity it bought from
the Russian utility.
    "Nord Pool is the one paying for them. Fingrid is not a
party in this electricity trade, we provide the transfer
connection from Russia to Finland," Reima Paivinen, Fingrid's
senior-vice president for operations, told Reuters.
    A spokesperson for Nord Pool said the company did not
comment market information that customers have reported via
urgent market messages (UMM).

 (Reporting by Anna Pruchnika in Gdansk, Essi Lehto in Helsinki
and Nora Buli in Oslo, editing by Gwladys Fouche)
 ((gwladys.fouche@tr.com; +47 21 04 05 53; Reuters Messaging:
Twitter handle: @gfouche))