About the market > The physical market

Power consumption

In recent years, power consumption in the Nordic countries has grown by just over 1% yearly. The production capacity has not in any way increased correspondingly. Power consumption has increased most in the Finnish industry sector and in Mid-Norway, where several major development projects in both power intensive industry and petroleum industry have been carried through. The authorities predict a somewhat lower growth in electricity consumption in the years to come.

Power Generation

The average annual power generation in the Nordic countries is just below 400 TWh per year. Half of the production in a normal year comes from Norwegian and Swedish hydropower, but this can fluctuate sharply from one year to the next, depending on the amount of precipitation. A quarter of the power has its origin from the Swedish and Finnish nuclear power plants, and the rest comes from oil, coal and gas as well as wind and bioenergy.

There has been a spot market in the Nordic countries since the early 1990’s. It serves as a daily auction market where participants can report their need for physical purchase or sale of electricity.