The main responsiblities of the Ministry of Trade and Industry are the coordination and financing of nuclear safety research and administration of the State Nuclear Waste Management Fund which has been established in order to ensure financing of future waste management costs. The state receives its funds from annual fees paid by nuclear power producers like Imatran Voima (IVO) and Industrial Power Company Ltd (TVO). The government also provides funding for energy research and development programs which had estimated to about FIM 285 million in 1994. These programs helped to deviate an effective district heating system.
The implementation of these policies have also led the government to derive a new energy conservation programe.
District Heating based on the cogeneration of heat and electricity has evolved into a cost and energy efficient system.
The cost for cogeneration are one third-less than the costs of separate generation of heat and electricity.
When each building generates its own heat and electricity, the demand for fuel is 152 and the efficiency ratio is only 56%.
Cogeneration has also minimized the harmful environmental effects of energy production.
Although there has been an increase in energy production and use, the sulfur and nitrogen oxide emissions into the atmosphere have been cut by about two-thirds and a quarter, respectively.
The reduction of these gases in the atmosphere is also a result of the sulfur reduction plants and development in techonologies for cutting nitogen oxide emissions.
The cogeneration of heat and electricity have also reduced the consumption of fuel.
The process which involves the use of waste like condensed water is transmitted through long-distance pipes that make up the district heating trasnmission network.