Electricity Market Price Falls by Nine Per Cent in March

Prices in the Estonian price area of the Nord Pool Spot (NPS) electricity exchange fell by 9.3 per cent in March to 30.31 euros per megawatt-hour. The monthly average exchange prices in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania remained at the lowest level since the launch of the price areas.

Prices in the Estonian and Finnish price areas differed for 14 per cent of the time in March, which is more than in previous months. The change was caused mainly by the drop in electricity production in Estonia, as a result of which the import demand of the Baltic countries exceeded transmission capacity in the direction from Finland to Estonia more often than before. The average NPS Finnish price was 29.42 euros per megawatt-hour in March. The price fell by 11.3 per cent compared to February.

In March, the NPS system price fell by 12.8 per cent to an average of 25.34 euros per megawatt-hour. The biggest NPS system price drop was seen in Latvia and Lithuania, a fall of 18.3 per cent, where the electricity price was 32.22 euros per megawatt-hour. The lowest prices in the NPS system were seen in Denmark, where negative prices once again occurred due to favourable wind conditions on March 1, reaching up to minus 5.08 euros per megawatt-hour, meaning that the consumers were paid for consuming electricity during this time.

The NPS Latvian and Estonian day-ahead prices differed for only 32 per cent of the time in March. The average price difference was 1.91 euros per megawatt-hour.
March carbon dioxide emission quota prices, which also influence the electricity production price, remained on the same level as in February, in the region of between 6.41 and 7.04 euros per tonne.

According to the financial transactions on the Nasdaq OMX Commodities market, the average price for electricity in the NPS Estonian price area for April 2015 is expected to be 33.45 euros per megawatt-hour, and the average price of the second quarter may reach 32.85 euros per megawatt-hour.

Elering saw profits of approximately 592,000 euros in March through the sale of risk hedging instruments known as Limited-PTRs to market participants.