Regulatory concern about economic deregulation in Finland

The deregulation of the electricity market may cause an increased pressure to reduce the costs of electricity generation. This makes a new challenge to the regulatory body to assess the impact of these changes on the safety of nuclear power plants. Accordingly, it is important to identify the risks to the nuclear power industry resulting from the economic deregulation. This paper is to discuss the current situation in Finland with regard to the economic deregulation of the electricity market and the experiences so far. A common view today is that the number of electricity generating power companies will be reduced in Europe because of tough competition in the electricity market. It is expected that only the biggest companies can stand the consequences of tough competition in electricity prices and the consequential pressure to reduce costs. In order to review the impact of deregulation of the electricity market some relevant points have been discussed in this paper, such as change of ownership of power companies due to the economic pressure, the need to cut costs of the companies by reducing the number of their activities and increasing the efficiency in the remaining activities and/or outsourcing of activities. The need to pursue reduction or delay of planned investments in safety upgrades are discussed as well. (author)