Total energy consumption fell by 6 %

Total energy consumption in January to September amounted to 963 petajoule (PJ), which was six percent less than in the corresponding period in 2018, according to Statistics Finland.

Electricity consumption amounted to 63.2 terawatt hours (TWh), or one percent lower than one year earlier. Carbon dioxide emissions from the energy use of fuels declined by 11 percent year-on-year.

The milder weather in the early part of the year compared to 2018 was the main cause of the drop in total energy consumption. Consumption of all fuels decreased in January to September from the year before. Consumption of peat declined most, by 20 percent. Peat consumption returned to the 2017 level after rising last year. Next to coal, the decline in the consumption of peat affected the decrease in carbon dioxide emissions most. The consumption of coal fell by 15 percent.

Production of hydro power in electricity production fell by 10 percent and condensing power by 42 percent January to September. Production of wind power increased by eight percent and combined heat and power production by five percent. Net imports of electricity made an upturn in the third quarter but still decreased as a whole by one percent in January to September.

In the January to September period, diverse energy products were imported into Finland to the value of EUR 7.8 billion. The value of imports fell by two percent from the previous year. Most energy products were imported from Russia, whose share of the value of imports was 64 percent. Energy products were exported from Finland to the value of EUR 4.1 billion, which was three percent up on the year before. Most energy products were exported from to OECD countries, which accounted for 82 percent of the value of exports.