The Baltic Electricity Shortage Increased in July

Electricity consumption in the Baltic region exceeded production by 30% in July, pushing the electricity shortfall to a new peak. Estonia is the only electricity exporting nation among the Baltic neighbours, and we produced 46% more than we consumed in July.

Estonian consumption has been rising slightly since February and in July it was 1% higher than a year previously at 521 GWh. Consumption increased among companies connected to distribution networks, while consumption by large customers fell. 

Estonia produced 976 GWh of electricity which represents a small fall of 2% from the same time last year as a consequence of interruptions in generation at the Balti and Eesti power plants in July.

The unavailability of hydro-power and CHP generation in the summer months caused major shortages of electricity in Latvia and Lithuania, and the two countries covered their needs with imported electricity. The shortfall in Lithuania was 71% of consumption and 63% of this shortfall was covered by electricity bought from third countries outside the European Union. The Latvian shortfall was similar at 53% despite the slight increase in production.

Chair of the Elering board Taavi Veskimägi said that the shortage of electricity in the Baltic states reached a new peak in July. “The increasing and accepted role of electricity imported from Russia in the Baltic electricity market is worrying. The decision last week by E.ON Rossija, the Russian subsidiary of E.ON of Germany, to start supplying electricity produced in Russia to the Baltic states shows an increasing tendency for electricity production to move outside of the European Union. Climate policy is having an impact and as nuclear power plants are not accepted, the best solution politically is more and more being seen as imports from Russia and other third countries where electricity continues to be produced under looser regulatory conditions. In total this makes it impossible to build new generating capacity near to third countries, in this case the Russian-Belarusian border, without subsidies. In the future this could lead us into an electricity dependency similar to that we see today with gas,” he explained. 

The balance of electricity in the Nordic region was significantly affected by an increase in hydro-power production in Norway and Sweden, which saw Norway generate 30% more electricity in July than in the same month last year. The shortfall in Finland increased to 1607 GWh.

Complete summary can be found here (only in Estonian).