Google data centres in Finland could raise Estonian power prices

Google’s plan to build large data centres in Finland could reduce the country’s electricity surplus and raise prices in Estonia by around 0.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, ERR reported. The estimate assumes that no new generation capacity is added in Finland or Estonia.

Google plans to invest 13 billion in Finland to build the data centres, whose energy consumption is expected to equal half of the output of the Loviisa nuclear power plant over 22 years. This could reduce the surplus electricity that Estonia has bought cheaply from Finland.

“If prices rise there, they will also rise here during periods when we import electricity from Finland,” said Tiit Hõbejõgi, a board member of Enefit. He said Finnish electricity consumption had increased by about 500 megawatts compared with 2025 and that prices had risen by five euros per megawatt-hour over the past year, excluding the coldest winter months.

Ignitis Eesti chief executive Timo Tatar said the average price in Finland could remain broadly where it is if new generation capacity is added. However, the market could become more volatile, with more hours of very high prices as well as periods of very low prices when additional wind power becomes available.

Estonia has bought around 40 percent of its electricity consumption from Finland and other Nordic countries in recent years. Elering chief executive Kalle Kilk said Estonia should not rely on the amount of surplus electricity available from its neighbours.

“If consumption increases without a corresponding rise in supply, it will clearly affect both security of supply and prices,” Kilk said. He added that Estonia needed to ensure it could produce more of its electricity domestically.