Last Friday Finland's electricity market was turned upside down when a Norwegian energy firm erroneously offered huge amounts of non-existent electricity on the Nordpool market.
That forced the spot price down as low as -50 cents, meaning that any consumer on a spot price contract was able to make money just by turning on their household appliances.
Happy days for the end user, but energy market participants were less than pleased.
Financial daily Kauppalehti takes a very serious look at the problem in an editorial, suggesting that the Nordic countries might need to introduce an emergency brake mechanism to flatten out peaks and troughs in energy prices in the future.
The energy price is calculated each day by Nordpool, after it takes in bids from energy producers based on what they expect to produce and matches that against the expected demand.
In other parts of Europe the market holds a 'Second auction' if the prices are too low or too high. That allows producers to offer more or less energy once they see what the price is likely to be, thereby raising or lowering it.
In the Nordics that doesn't happen, even though it was proposed in 2015. KL suggests that might be because energy producers primarily thought about the possible reductions in price it might bring when prices would otherwise be high.
They preferred to rely on market mechanisms forcing reductions in consumption, and never really considered what might happen if there was a mistake and they had to source electricity to sell at a loss — as happened on Friday.
School dinner waste reductions
Aamulehti has a look at moves by Tampere region municipalities to reduce food waste in daycare centres and schools.
This food is produced by Pirkanmaan Voimia, a company owned by several councils in the area. They had noticed that a lot of food was getting thrown away, and asked schools and daycare centres to try and reduce their orders to reflect the amounts that are actually consumed.
Institutions can assume a certain level of absences based on sickness and other issues, and getting better at predicting those means there is less food thrown away after lunch.
Since the food waste drive started in 2022 orders have reduced by some 4-8 percent, depending on the institution.
That has caused some issues as most schools allow children to serve their food themselves from the lunch counter.
When popular foods are on offer, like fish fingers or similar, food can run out, according to Tampere's head of basic education Kristiina Järvelä.
"There is a recommended portion size, but there's always someone who takes 25 meatballs even though the order is based on 5 meatballs each," says Järvelä. "There is however always backup food [in the school's kitchen], so nobody is left hungry."
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It's crazy, it's rental
Helsingin Sanomat reports on a new addition to Helsinki's holiday rental scene: the studio apartment that was home to Eurovision star Käärijä before he was famous.
Located in the rough and ready northern suburb of Malmi, the flat is decked out in Käärijä's trademark green and decorated with a painting of the man himself in his iconic bolero.
The advert text even uses the artist's trademark, endearing Finglish.
"Have you ever think how I live once in Malmi? Now you can come and feel yourself how it feels. Yes Yes I know you will like," reads the description.
This unique experience does not come cheap, however: HS reports that the price for an upcoming weekend would be 764 euros per night.
Käärijä himself (real name Jere Pöyhönen) was granted a rental apartment in Vantaa free of charge for one year as a recognition of his Eurovision achievements, allowing his former home to become a city break destination.
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