Three units at the plant will be mothballed.

Plant owner Fortum Corporation will book an impairment loss of about €25 ($US33.2) million in its power division’s third-quarter results.

About 80 jobs will be cut from the 90 who work at the plant. Fortum held employee negotiations from June 12 to July 24.

The demand for coal condensing power in the Nordic power market has decreased due to the economic recession and the drop in the electricity wholesale price.

This meant the power plant’s utilisation rate was down.

The requirements of the European Union’s Emissions Directive would have been another burden on the plant’s profitability.

Fortum had conducted a study into future alternatives for the Inkoo plant.

The other alternatives were to continue to operations as they were or to partially close the plant.

“Personnel reductions are very unfortunate but unavoidable in this situation,” Fortum executive vice president power division Matti Ruotsala said.

“We will use a variety of means to support the job search and redeployment of the employees who will lose their job.

“During the coming months we will study the use of the Inkoo power plant area also for other purposes because the location of the power plant in the vicinity of the harbour may provide feasible opportunities.”