Estonia’s Electricity Production Grows, Consumption Falls

Looking back at the year 2013, electricity consumption in Estonia decreased by one percent to a total of 8.1 terawatt-hours. The main reason for the fall in consumption was the unusually warm autumn and winter.

For example, in December Estonia’s electricity production was 24% less, and consumption 13% less, than in the same month of 2012.

Electricity production grew by 11% in 2013 to 11.7 terawatt-hours. This, along with greater transmission capacity between Estonia and Latvia, allowed local producers to export more electricity. The consolidated balance of the energy trade shows that Estonia’s net exports totaled 3.6 terawatt-hours, which is 64% more than in 2012.

Between Estonia and Latvia, electricity flowed north to south for 94% of all hours last year. The Estonian-Finnish interconnection worked in the direction from Finland to Estonia for 67% of all hours, from Estonia to Finland for 30% of all hours, and for the remaining three percent of the time, there was no trade taking place.

In Latvia, electricity production grew by nine percent year-on-year, to 6.1 terawatt-hours. The growth in power generation was greatly helped by increased output at Riga’s combined heat and power plants. At the same time, the output of the Daugava hydro power stations was significantly below expectations, due to an extraordinarily dry year. Electricity consumption in Latvia grew by three percent last year, to 7.4 terawatt-hours, only 81% of which was covered by domestic production.

Lithuania’s electricity output fell by five percent last year, to 3.5 terawatt-hours. The amount of electricity consumed grew by one percent at the same time, and Lithuania’s electrical balance showed physical imports of nearly seven terawatt-hours, which is six percent more than in 2012. Lithuania’s electricity consumption was covered by Estonian and Latvian production to a significantly higher degree than in 2012, replacing imports from Russia. The latter decreased by a quarter in the last year, to 3.5 terawatt-hours.

The electricity consumption of the three Baltic states as a whole grew by one percent in the last year, coming to a total of 25.9 terawatt-hours, with production increasing by eight percent to 21.2 terawatt-hours. The combined electricity deficit of the three countries decreased by a fifth, to 4.7 terawatt-hours, and accounted for 18% of total consumption. 32% of the shortfall in the Baltics was covered by imports from the Nordics, while imports from third countries accounted for the other 68%.

The greatest impediment to covering the electricity shortfall in Latvia and Lithuania with power produced in the Nordics and Estonia is the deficit of transmission capacities. The physical capacity of the interconnections between Estonia and Latvia is 600 megawatts. The agreement between the Baltic transmission system operators allows for transmission of 900 megawatts of electricity, but following the launch of EstLink 2, this is clearly too little to cover Latvia and Lithuania’s deficit. A third interconnection between Estonia and Latvia needs to be constructed in order to integrate the Baltic market.

2013’s electricity production in the Nordics fell by approximately six percent year-on-year, to 380 terawatt-hours. Output in Norway and Sweden fell by nine percent, while Finland’s production remained on par with the previous year. The fall in output was mainly caused by decreased consumption, as well as low fill rates of hydro reservoirs. In Denmark, however, production increased by 13%.

Despite the surplus in Sweden and Norway’s electricity balances, the combined balance for the Nordics was 0.9 terawatt-hours in the negative in 2013. The electricity shortfall was covered by imports from Germany and Russia. A year earlier, the Nordics had an electricity surplus of 15.8 terawatt-hours.

The full report on the electrical system for the last year is available here (in Estonian).