15-min SPOT pricing Challenge or opportunity?
The electricity market just broke its clock. The move to 15-minute pricing for the Finnish SPOT price is one of the biggest changes in the energy landscape this decade. As of October 1, 2025, we no longer deal with 24 hourly averages, but with 96 specific price points every single day. For years, that hourly average smoothed over the sharpest price changes and spikes, helping to mask high consumption peaks. That is now a thing of the past
Why We Need Real-Time Speed
Why the sudden need for this speed? It's all about stability and reaction. Our power grid must handle the quick ups and downs of renewable energy production, primarily wind and solar. When the wind drops, the system needs to react in minutes, not an hour. The new 15-minute signals give the grid provider an important and necessary tool to respond quicker, keep the grid stable, and ensure that the lights can be kept on reliably.
Challenge or opportunity?
This higher price resolution creates sharper highs and sharper lows, fundamentally shifting who wins and who loses in the energy game. High energy users are now put in front of a massive challenge because, like the grid, success in the 15-minute market is all about flexibility.
Before, high and low peaks in energy price were smoothed out, which was forgiving to constant energy users. These peaks are now a lot more visible and noticeable on the electricity bill at the end of the month. This puts high energy users at risk, especially if they lack the necessary tools to react to these peaks. At the same time, the system heavily rewards those that can react quickly and maximize profit by using the low price peaks.
Flexibility is the new rule in the game
The 15-minute price changes everything. Staying rigid and slow with always-on machinery can become simply too expensive for modern business operations. Manual energy management cannot win. While humans are capable of a lot, monitoring 96 price points every day and adjusting settings fast enough to avoid unnecessary high costs is simply impossible.
The solution is smart automation and flexibility. Automated systems that read the daily price forecast and adjust large loads (like pre-heating a building or charging vehicles) are no longer a luxury; they are a necessity. Those who adapt will profit; those who don't will simply pay for the flexibility of their competitors.
We believe this is an exciting challenge. The market rewards those who are bold and willing to try new, smarter paths, while punishing those that are slow and rigid.
