Electricity Price in Estonia Remains Lower than Southern Neighbors

The price in the Estonian price area in October was 46.76 euros per megawatt-hour, which is a drop of 62 cents compared to September. In the NPS Latvia and NPS Lithuania price areas, electricity remained the most expensive anywhere on the Nordic power exchange, at 64.18 euros per megawatt-hour – an increase of 3.5% month-on-month.

The price of electricity in the region continued to be influenced by lower than usual hydro energy levels in October. The fill rates of Norwegian hydro reservoirs in October were lower than during the same period in previous years, reaching only 73.5% of the maximum possible level. Norway, Sweden and Finland saw growth in both consumption (18%, 14% and 12% respectively) and production (9%, 15% and 22% respectively).

In the NPS Latvia and NPS Lithuania price areas, electricity prices remained the highest anywhere on the Nordic power exchange, at 64.18 euros per megawatt-hour – an increase of 3.5% month-on-month. Prices in the NPS Latvia and NPS Lithuania price areas remained equal for all trading hours.

In Finland, the price of electricity fell similarly to Estonia, by 3.8% to 45.95 euros per megawatt-hour. Domestic production managed to cover 81% of Finland’s consumption. Power flows across the Estonian-Finnish electrical interconnection EstLink 1 were in the direction from Estonia to Finland for 28% of all hours last month, and in the direction from Finland to Estonia for the remaining hours.

The NPS system price for last month stayed on par with September, at 38.33 euros per megawatt-hour on average.

The price of carbon dioxide emission quotas remained stable in October, fluctuating between 4.57 and 5.32 euros per ton.

The monthly average price of natural gas imported into Estonia was 30.74 euros per megawatt-hour, according to Elering’s estimates. This is four eurocents higher than the September price.

Prices of futures on the Nasdaq OMX Commodities market fell in October. The estimated price of electricity in the NPS Estonia price area in the first quarter of 2014 is 43.9 euros per megawatt-hour.