Finland Needs 64% Power Price Jump to Secure Russia Imports

Finnish electricity prices need to rise by 64 percent from last year’s average to attract imports from Russia after flows into the Nordic country slumped to the lowest level since 1997, an academic said.

Prices above 60 euros ($78) a megawatt-hour for a period of at least four hours would encourage flows from Finland’s eastern neighbor, Satu Viljainen, a professor of power markets at Lappeenranta University of Technology, said on March 22 in a phone interview from Lappeenranta, Finland. Wholesale prices averaged 36.64 euros a megawatt-hour last year on the Nord Pool Spot AS exchange in Oslo and delivery for tomorrow settled at