"Cleaning Day" - The shelved movie project by Denzel Washington aimed at housewives.
In our house, it is cleaning day today, as well as cooking day. With work-time challenges that reach into our evenings currently, we are trying to be a bit more organized and do some of the prep ahead to make things easier. And, Sundays is a good day to run the ovens and the cleaning appliances, as it is a cheaper electricity day, with the price actually lower today than it was on our fixed contract that ended at the start of the year.
Unfortunately, this isn't the norm.
Circle = Current price
Kallein = High
Halvin = Low
Tomorrow's hasn't been published yet, so we don't know what it is going to be, but last Monday, the average was at 13 cents, Tuesday 14 cents and the rest of the week around 11-12 cent per kWh.
And I thought this next chart would be interesting to not today, as it tells the source of the energy. In order of appearance:
Tuuli = Wind
Ydin = Nuclear
Teollisuus = Industrial
Vesi = Water
Kaukolämpö = District heating
Muu = Other
Aurinko = Solar
Normally, Nuclear power provides around 25% of the energy in Finland with it increasing when the new yet to be fully operational Olkiluoto plant fires up and adds to the grid. It is expected to provide around 14% of Finland's energy needs, but after being plagued with issues in the development, it still won't be fully operational until March or April. No one is holding their breath, as it was originally slated to go live in 2009.
But, with the weather above zero and the wind picking up accordingly, wind power is a surprise number one today, which I think is the first time I have seen it there. This is also because most industry is shut down for the weekend and the demand is lower, so the production from the turbines makes more impact.
Also, in that top box, you can see "Kotimaa and Ulkomaat", which is home and foreign production, where depending on needs, Finland will take some overflow energy from other sources, like from Sweden up in the north. Finland also sells energy to other neighboring countries too, but that doesn't appear in these numbers.
This last chart describes the averages over the last 30 days of price, with it coming down rapidly over the last 30 days. It is only 30 days though, so it has actually come down much more, with it at times coming close to hitting sixty cents, with plenty of days being around fifty, which is 1200% more than today.
Due to the panic of higher prices, many people locked themselves into contracts and even now, energy companies are trying to offer fixed contracts around the 40 cent mark. Not many are biting I would suspect.
However, the energy companies are under investigation of sorts, where there is a law that says they have to offer energy at a "reasonable price" to the retail market. But as is the way of governments, no one defined what is meant by a reasonable price, which means there is no set algorithm to determine it, making the law useless. I don't know when the law was added, but this is the first time it is being considered in practice, so it will be interesting to see what comes of it.
There are also various plans in place and being considered to release the cost of energy burden on some sectors of the market, including some businesses. For retail, those who were being charged the very high prices in the last few months of 2022 will qualify for a return and for us for example, if our monthly bills add to over 2000€ for the period between January and April, we will get a 60% tax rebate on anything over that amount. We should qualify for that, but the impact is going to be relatively small, as if for example our bill is 3000€ for that period, it will mean a tax reduction of 600€, split between each of us. Better than nothing, but the impact of the reduction isn't felt for a year or so at least, so the immediate impact is more harming than the rebate impact, especially as cost of living prices are high currently.
All in all though, it is going to be "okay" for us as we never overextended ourselves to far into debt and we have a collared mortgage which means we aren't immediately impacted by rising interest rates. Hopefully, we will both also get paid our bonuses in the next month or two, so we will have a little extra available to cover the bills until our energy needs reduce as the weather warms up. This isn't necessarily the same for all people around here, so we are pretty lucky.
While everyone is largely in the same boat with rising prices though, I think talking about it openly is important, because I know that many I have spoken with felt quite isolated and had a lot of stress. Discussing it has helped them make their own plans clearer and also given them some insight into how others are coping, which has possibly eased their minds a little and brought in new ideas. The gamification of playing "energy markets" has also made people pay more attention to the things that are actually affecting them and, have shifted their behaviors - like choosing which day to clean on.
Now though - it is time to vacuum.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
