Estonian and Finnish Electricity Exchange Prices Mostly Equal in August

For 70% of all hours in August, the Nordic power exchange Nord Pool Spot (NPS) recorded the same exchange price for electricity in NPS Estonia and NPS Finland price areas. Over the month as a whole, the price in the Estonian area was still higher than in Finland. NPS Estonia price area recorded an average price of 40.32 euros, while NPS Finland price area was at 38.18 euros.

In the Estonian price area, the price grew by 12 percent compared to July, while in Finland the increase was by a factor of 2.8. The main reason for the sudden spike in the price of electricity in Finland was the deficit in transmission capacity between Finland and Sweden starting from August 20th, due to maintenance work on the direct current connections. Finland’s nuclear and coal-powered generation capacity also decreased due to maintenance.

In NPS ELE price area that spans the Estonian-Latvian border, the price of electricity increased by 20% compared to July, to 51.19 euros, while NPS Lithuania saw a jump of 18% to 54.10 euros per megawatt-hour. The electricity prices for the three Baltic price areas remained the highest among all NPS areas. The overall NPS system price grew from July’s record low of 13.70 euros to 23.57 euros per megawatt-hour in August, which is still below the regulated market price in Estonia.

The price increase was caused by growth in consumption due to chilly weather, as well as maintenance at nuclear power plants in Finland and Sweden. At the same time, the system price was 41% lower than in August of last year.

The price harmonization between Estonia and Finland, and the limited transmission capacity between Finland and Sweden, reduced the flow of cheaper hydro energy into Finland, so in the second half of August, the electricity flow between Estonia and Finland was mostly in Finland’s direction. Over the entire month, electricity flowed from Estonia to Finland for 320 hours and from Finland to Estonia for 418 hours.

In July, the flow was from Finland to Estonia for the entire time.

In August, the EstLink 1 connection between Estonia and Finland was at maximum transmission capacity for 43 hours in the direction from Estonia to Finland, and for 180 hours in the direction from Finland to Estonia.

A total of 548 gigawatt-hours of electricity were sold in NPS Estonia and NPS ELE price areas in August, compared to 311 gigawatt-hours in July. Out of the total August sales, NPS Estonia accounted for 520 gigawatt-hours and NPS ELE for 28 gigawatt-hours.

The demand for electricity in NPS Estonia and NPS ELE price areas increased again in August.

A total of 593 gigawatt-hours of electricity were purchased in the two areas in August, an increase of four percent over the previous month. This is another record amount. In NPS Estonia price area, 259 gigawatt-hours were purchased during the month, while the demand from Latvian and Lithuanian market participants trading in NPS ELE was 224 and 109 gigawatt-hours accordingly.

In the next-day and same-day markets, Estonian market participants purchased a total of 260 gigawatt-hours, accounting for 46 percent of August’s domestic electricity consumption.

55 gigawatt-hours of electricity were exported from Estonia to Finland in August, while 100 gigawatt-hours were imported from Finland to Estonia. In August, Estonia was an electricity-exporting system for 42% of all hours.

The price of electricity in the Baltics is significantly affected by the price of imported natural gas. By Elering’s assessment, the price of natural gas imported in Estonia fell in August to 39.35 euros per megawatt-hour. The figure for July was 40.5 euros. The price of gas was driven down in August by the euro’s stronger exchange rate against the dollar, despite growing oil prices.

The heating period started early due to chilly weather, which meant that the price of CO2 grew in August, from 6.9 euros at the start of the month to 8.1 euros per ton at the end of the month.

The full August report on the electricity market is available here (in Estonian).