Fortum
Encyclopedia
Fortum Oyj is a Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 publicly listed energy company, which focuses on the Nordic
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...

 and Baltic countries
Baltic countries
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...

, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 and the north-west of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. After acquisition of Russian energy company TGC-10 in year 2008, Western Siberia has become an important operating area for Fortum. The head of the company is Tapio Kuula, President and CEO. Fortum operates and maintains power plants and provides other energy related services. The company's main product is the production and distribution of electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

, heat
Heat
In physics and thermodynamics, heat is energy transferred from one body, region, or thermodynamic system to another due to thermal contact or thermal radiation when the systems are at different temperatures. It is often described as one of the fundamental processes of energy transfer between...

 and steam
Steam
Steam is the technical term for water vapor, the gaseous phase of water, which is formed when water boils. In common language it is often used to refer to the visible mist of water droplets formed as this water vapor condenses in the presence of cooler air...

.

History

Fortum Corporation was founded in 1998. It was created from the merging of the Finnish state owned power and heat company IVO
IVO
The Institute for Public Affairs, in Slovak Inštitút pre verejné otázky or IVO, is an independent non-governmental, nonprofit organization registered to operate in the Slovak Republic...

 (Imatran Voima Oy), founded in 1921, and Neste Oy, the Finnish national oil company. The Neste assets were divested into separate stock-listed company in 2005.

Fortum is listed on NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...

 OMX Helsinki stock exchange and is currently the only Nordic energy company registered on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index
Dow Jones Sustainability Index
Launched in September 1999, the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes are a family of indexes evaluating the performance of the world’s leaders in sustainability. They are the longest-running global sustainability benchmarks worldwide and have become the key reference point in Sustainability Investing...

. (DJSI)

Hydroelectric power

Hydro power has always been Fortum’s core activity. The company currently owns and runs about 260 hydro power plants, mainly in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 and Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, for a 4,683MW production capacity (2010). Hydro power amounts to 48% of the power produced by Fortum in Nordic countries, and 1/3 of the total power produced by Fortum each year.

Fortum meets the ISO 14001 norm for preservation of the environment, and the OHSAS 18001 norm for health and safety. The hydro power fleet has benefitted from a stable investment policy: in its ongoing hydro power investment program Fortum has invested about 270 millions euros for the modernization of almost 50 hydro power production sites since the early 1990s.

Nuclear power

Fortum has been producing nuclear energy
Nuclear energy
Nuclear energy usually means the part of the energy of an atomic nucleus, which can be released by fusion or fission or radioactive decay.Nuclear energy also may refer to:*Nuclear binding energy, the energy required to split a nucleus of an atom....

 since 1977. The company owns the nuclear plant in Loviisa, Finland, which covers around 10% of the country's energy production. Its nuclear assets also cover Sweden with share ownership in the nuclear plants in Forsmark
Forsmark
Forsmark is a village with 59 inhabitants on the east coast of Uppland, Sweden. It is most known as the location of the Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant....

 and Oskarshamn
Oskarshamn
Oskarshamn is a coastal city and the seat of Oskarshamn Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden with 17,258 inhabitants in 2010.-History:The location of Oskarshamn was known as Döderhultsvik since the Medieval age...

. In addition, Fortum is shareholder in Teollisuuden Voima Oyj, which currently operates two nuclear units in Olkiluoto
Olkiluoto
The Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant is on Olkiluoto Island, which is on the shore of the Gulf of Bothnia in the municipality of Eurajoki in western Finland. It is one of Finland's two nuclear power plants, the other being the two-unit VVER Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant...

, Finland, and is constructing a third unit in co-operation with Areva
Areva
AREVA is a French public multinational industrial conglomerate headquartered in the Tour Areva in Courbevoie, Paris. AREVA is mainly known for nuclear power; it also has interests in other energy projects. It was created on 3 September 2001, by the merger of Framatome , Cogema and...

-Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...

 consortium
Consortium
A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....

.
In Finland, the two nuclear power plants of Loviisa
Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant
Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant , is a nuclear power plant located close to the Finnish city of Loviisa. It houses two Soviet-designed VVER-440/213 PWR reactors, each with a capacity of 488 MW....

 are wholly owned by Fortum. Furthermore, Fortum owns a 26.6% stake in the Teollisuuden Voima
Teollisuuden Voima
Teollisuuden Voima Oyj is a Finnish nuclear power company owned by a consortium of power and industrial companies. The biggest shareholders are Pohjolan Voima and Fortum...

, which operates two nuclear power plants at Olkiluoto and is currently building a third one.

Fortum owns 45.5% of Oskarshamn Nuclear Power Plant
Oskarshamn Nuclear Power Plant
The Nuclear power station Oskarshamn is one of three active nuclear power stations in Sweden. The plant is about 30 kilometers north of Oskarshamn directly at the Kalmarsund at the Baltic Sea coast and with three reactors producing about 10% of the electricity needs of Sweden...

 and 22% of Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant
Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant
Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant in Forsmark, Sweden, and also the site of the Swedish Final repository for radioactive operational waste...

 in Sweden. In year 2004 Fortum produced 17.9 % of Swedish nuclear electricity (13.4 TWh / 75 TWh).

Fortum owns 25.7% of Russian nuclear power company Polyarnye Zori
Polyarnye Zori
Polyarnye Zori is a town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located on the Niva River, Lake Imandra, and Lake Pinozero south of Murmansk. Population:...

 as partner of TGK-1.

Combined production of heat and electric power (cogeneration or CHP)

Fortum produces and sells heat in Nordic countries
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...

 and Baltic countries
Baltic countries
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...

, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, with 31 plants combining production of heat
Heat
In physics and thermodynamics, heat is energy transferred from one body, region, or thermodynamic system to another due to thermal contact or thermal radiation when the systems are at different temperatures. It is often described as one of the fundamental processes of energy transfer between...

 and electric power
Electric power
Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt.-Circuits:Electric power, like mechanical power, is represented by the letter P in electrical equations...

. Fortum is the 4th largest heat producer globally.
Year Production (TWh
TWH
TWH or twh could refer to:*Tennessee Walking Horse, a breed of horse* Toronto Western Hospital, a hospital in Toronto, Canada* TWH Bus & Coach, a bus company in Romford, England* Terrawatt-hour, measure of electrical energy, 1012 watt-hours...

)
Emission (Gt CO2) kg CO2/MWh
2002 48 7 146
2003 53 9.14 172
2004 56 7.93 143
2005 52 1.99 38
2006 54 5.82 107
2007 52 3.34 64
2008 53 2.16 41
2009 49 2.02 41

Environment

Fortum has the biggest market share of ecolabeled electricity in Finland. With three hydropower plants, seven biomass plants and four wind parks the company has also more EKOenergy
EKOenergy
EKOenergy label is an international ecolabel for energy. It is managed by the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation in cooperation with the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation...

 certified power stations than any other company in Finland. According to Fortum's own publications it is also the largest seller of Bra Miljöval certified energy in Sweden.

Research and development – R&D

Fortum's R&D activities are divided into different themes among which:
  • Maintenance and life cycle management of power plants
  • Combustion
    Combustion
    Combustion or burning is the sequence of exothermic chemical reactions between a fuel and an oxidant accompanied by the production of heat and conversion of chemical species. The release of heat can result in the production of light in the form of either glowing or a flame...

     technology
  • Nuclear security and efficiency
  • Replacement of fossile energies by green energies
  • Wave power technologies


Fortum also created “Fortum Innovation Awards” to incite its employees to contribute to innovation and development by suggesting ways for improvement. For instance, three ideas are selected during the tri-annual evaluation reviews by drawing among all submitted ideas and rewarded by a 500 euro net cash award or equivalent.

Fortum contributes to the gathering of financial funds benefitting CleanTech to develop Smart Grids activities in Northern Europe.

Fortum and the European Market

Fortum positions itself as a European energy player in the context of the market opening. Through the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan Fortum meets pressing needs from Baltic countries
Baltic countries
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...

.

Sustainable development

Fortum participates in surveys on fishing industry with municipalities, environmental organizations and research institutes in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, Norway, Iceland Russia and the Baltic Rim Area.
Fortum introduces 700.000 smolts in the Bothnia
Bothnia
SS Bothnia was a passenger ship built in 1874 in Glasgow. She made several voyages from Liverpool to New York City and Boston. The ship was scrapped in 1899....

 gulf In Finland and Sweden every year. The company also participates in re-populating white fishes, pikeperches and Touladi in regulated rivers and lakes used for hydroelectric power production.

Fondation and partners

The Fortum Fondation get involved in causes such as protection of childhood, sport, environmental care and research support.
Fortum also worked with Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...

.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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