Impacts on the energy sector and adaptation of the electricity network business under a changing climate in Finland: FINADAPT Working Paper 10

Climate change is expected to have notable impacts on the energy sector. Several general-level studies exist on the plausible impacts on energy resources and exploitation of the resources, on energy production, on demand of energy and on the reliability of energy supply. This report presents a literature review on these impacts and discusses the possible adaptation measures. Energy sources considered were hydropower, wind power, bioenergy, peat, solar power, fossil fuels and nuclear power. The most notable impacts of climate change on energy sector are due to changes in precipitation, temperature, wind speed and unusual weather conditions. The main focus of the work was Finland, but due to the limited amount of available studies, the work was extended to cover also other world regions.

The main impacts of climate change on energy sector in Finland are:

- Moderate increase of renewable energy resources (hydro, wind, biomass). Changes in seasonal distribution of hydro inflow are likely to impact operational practice of hydropower production. The electricity system can be adapted by taking into account the changes in the availability of various resources and adding new capacity, if needed.

- Possible increase in extreme weather conditions may increase faults in electricity distribution network. To minimize network faults, design requirements and management practices for electricity distribution networks should be adapted to the new conditions.

- Temperature increase will lower the heating demand and increase the cooling demand. Seasonal differences in electricity demand will slightly decrease.

The adaptation of the energy sector to climate change needs additional investigations. Especially renewable energy sources, the robustness of facilities, the demand of cooling energy and adaptation to extreme weather events are topics which need more studies.