A control room is set up inside an ordinary office building in Tampere. In this room, dozens of screens display various graphs and figures. They tell their own story about water levels and flows in hydropower plants and the electricity market. From this control room, more than 20 hydropower plants are operated and trading on various electricity markets is conducted.
"The market has changed a lot in the recent years. The workload in the control room has increased, although efforts have been made to automate processes as much as possible. With these changes, there is a need for additional resources," says Teemu Kerttula, a supervisor at the control room.
With the increasing presence of renewable electricity generation in the market, volatility, or price fluctuations have increased in all markets. This is partly due to the fact that the market has had more capacity and reserve products, for which hydropower is well suited. However, optimizing production and managing hydro reservoirs brings additional challenges, especially for the spot trading team.
A career in the power market started with a summer job
There are two teams in the control room: an intraday team and a spot team. Joonas Pajunen is one of the traders on the spot team. The spot market goes by many names: the pan-European day-ahead market, the day-ahead market, the electricity wholesale market. In the vernacular, it's called “spot electricity”. The aim is to supply all regions participating in the market with electricity produced as cost-effectively as possible to meet everyone's needs. All electricity markets also ensure a balance between supply and demand.
Pajunen's career at UPM Energy started about three years ago as a summer intern in the control room. He already had experience of working in a utility control room, but he says he still learned a lot in the control room.
"The terms of the electricity market were already familiar to a certain extent, but here you gain a deep understanding of how the electricity market and the grid work, and the impact of individual trades and water behavior. Working in the control room also strengthens independent decision-making," says Pajunen.
Pajunen now works in a team that executes next-day spot trades in the market every day of the year – including Christmas and Midsummer. The team is also responsible for development projects related to systems and hydropower.
His career path has followed a general pattern: after summer work in the control room, work continues with a diploma thesis for UPM Energy. This is often followed by various jobs in the control room.
"After that, the path branches out. At UPM Energy, control team members have become market analysts and control room team leaders, among other things. We have also had people end up as an energy directors at UPM Communication Papers," Kerttula points out.
There's no better place to learn about energy than in a control room
The control room is responsible for the operation of hydropower plants: regulating the water levels in accordance with permit conditions and producing electricity cost-effectively. The control room also monitors the electricity consumption and production at UPM's mills and manages the electricity balance, i.e. the balance between production and consumption.
"We aim to manage the electricity balance by using intraday electricity trading," says Kerttula.
Intraday trading allows electricity production and consumption to be balanced as forecasts become more accurate closer to the time of use, in Finland up to the beginning of the operating hour.
"We work in shifts in the control room. The market operates 24 hours a day and the levels and flows of the hydropower plants have to be monitored 24 hours a day to keep them within the permit conditions," explains Kerttula.
"The control room job is a gateway to the physical electricity market, as the job brings you into contact with all the electricity products on the market. For someone interested in the energy sector, I don't think there is a better place to learn," concludes Kerttula, who has been a supervisor since 2017.
"Responsibility is the best part of the job, but it's also challenging"
Kerttula believes that the shift work in the control room is suitable for evening workers who have the ability to do several things at once. Responsibility and initiative are also important qualities.
"Responsibility is the best part of the job, but also the most challenging. That's why on-call work is better for someone who likes to work independently and make decisions," Pajunen describes.
"With a compact team, you also get to enjoy a good team spirit. There are some fun personalities here!" Kerttula smiles.
Although shift work sometimes means being alone, no one is left to fend for themselves. Orientation is done with care.
"The orientation period is taken seriously here. No one is thrown in at the deep end until they're really ready to take over," Pajunen points out.
Interested in working at UPM Energy? We have job openings at the Market analysis team:
Energy Market Analyst: UPM Careers
Summer Trainee: UPM Careers
Caption: Joonas Pajunen (right) has worked in the spot and mid-term team for two years. Teemu Kerttula is the supervisor for the control room.