Russia is preparing to cut electricity supplies to Finland this weekend, a supplier warned today (May 13). It comes after Finland announced its ambition to join the Nato military alliance earlier this week following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"We are forced to suspend the electricity import starting from May 14," RAO Nordic, a subsidiary of Russian state energy holding Inter RAO said in a statement. It added the company had not received payment for volumes sold in May.
Finnish grid firm Fingrid said the cut off will start on Saturday, Al Arabiya reports. "There is no threat to the adequacy of electricity in Finland," Fingrid said and added that power from Russia accounted for some 10 per cent 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," the company 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.
Nord Pool has not commented. On Thursday, Finland's leaders declared their nation must apply to join Nato "without delay" - but Russia has warned it would see such a move as a threat.
