(Bloomberg) -- Kinect Energy AS said that an “internal system error” was behind its offer to sell a massive amount of electricity in an auction that settles rates in Finland, resulting in a massive drop in prices. 

Kinect, a unit of World Kinect Corp., sold on average 5,787 megawatts from hour 1 to hour 24 for Friday delivery, according to a regulatory filing with the Nord Pool power exchange. That compares with a current consumption of just above 11,000 megawatts in the Nordic country, according to network manager Fingrid Oyj.

The bids are creating a large imbalance on the Nordic power market on Friday, according to Swedish grid manager Svenska Kraftnat AB.

“Slightly simplified, you can say that they sold something they didn’t have, and buyers bought something that doesn’t exist,” said Pontus de Mare, head of power system operation at Svenska Kraftnat AB. While tomorrow will be manageable, it could be messy, he said.

Fingrid is planning to make intraday purchases to ensure system security and balancing capacities, the transmission system operator said in a rare filing.

The faulty bids led to an average price of -203 euros ($-221) per megawatt-hour, compared with an average in the Nordic region of 35.28 euros, according to Nord Pool. From 2 p.m. to midnight on Friday, the Finnish power price is -500 euros per megawatt-hour, Nord Pool data showed.

“We are working with other market parties to solve this extreme situation,” Kinect said in the filing. The exchange is investigating the issue, Fingrid said. There will be no intraday trading of power from Finland toward Sweden on Friday to ensure the system will remain stable, Fingrid said in a separate filing.

(Updates with comments from Swedish and Finnish network managers)

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