EPV ENERGY MANAGEMENT

EPV Energy Management business area produces services relating to energy management for EPV shareholders and the energy generation companies owned, entirely or partly, by EPV.

EPV Tase produces services relating to energy management for EPV shareholders and the energy generation companies owned, entirely or partly, by EPV. The company’s own Operations Centre focuses on energy management and enables better development of activities than ever and the production of cost-efficient service alternatives for EPV Energy’s owners. The amenities directed at the shareholders of this new centre include various services concerning the shareholders’ management of wholesale power balance and the purchasing and selling of electricity in the Nordic power exchange. The most significant part of the Operations Centre’s activities involves optimising the result of EPV production companies’ energy trade. The centre has been developing advanced analytics and algorithms for the prediction and management of wind power production.

An important factor behind the establishment of the Operations Centre is the increase in renewable and unplanned energy generation, because it multiplies the requirements of monitoring and anticipating the energy trade round-the-clock, as well as trading. In the Operations Centre, the management of the energy balance is intensely focused on the planning of production for the next few hours and the coming day and is implemented round-the-clock, every day of the year.

All of EPV’s generation shares under its own energy management activities

The Operations Centre’s efficient activities and excellent management of the energy balance materialise as savings in the production costs of the production companies for EPV’s shareholders. In 2018, the Olkiluoto nuclear power production-shares and Seinäjoki and Vaasa power plants, which are all owned by EPV, were transferred to the Operations Centre to be covered by its energy management. EPV’s Operations Centre currently manages a production capacity totalling approximately 850 MW. In 2019, it will prepare to manage EPV’s share of approximately 160 MW of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant unit.

Focusing on cyber security

In our everyday operations, we are an integral part of the lives and everyday activities of the society, residents and companies. We participate in the electricity and heat supply chain of several cities. As a responsible operator, it is of paramount importance to make sure that we maintain top-level cyber security at all times. In 2018, the company invested specifically in the cyber security of its data administration. We carried out a broad range of cyber security audits within various activities and production companies.

With the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that came into force in May, we created instructions, guidelines and training for our staff on the details of the new regulation and on how it must be taken into account in our everyday processes in practice.

Adjustability in the market for renewable energy generation

The EPV Operations Centre has actively introduced and continues to introduce new technology and services in accordance with the requirements of the future operating environment.

There is currently a heated debate going on in public about how to best utilise the flexibility of consumers’ and companies’ electricity consumption for the benefit of the entire country’s electricity system. Previously, production largely adapted to changes in consumption. As unpredictable production, such as wind and solar power, increase, the situation is in part making a 180 degree turn, meaning that today there is more effort to adapt consumption to the ever-varying quantity of production. In other words, consumption is directed as much as possible to times of day when there is plenty of energy available.

It is clear that varying electricity production requires a smart electricity system. This means new operations models, technologies and services. The role electricity plays in heat production is also expected to grow.