Exchange Price of Electricity in Estonia and Finland Coincided in 97 Per Cent of Hours in April

According to the data of the Nordic electricity exchange Nord Pool Spot (NPS), the exchange price of electricity in Estonia and Finland coincided in 96.8% of time on the day-ahead market in April and no shortage of transmission capacities was detected during these hours. In March, the same figure was three per cent lower.

In the Estonian price zone, the average price in April was 31.64 euros per megawatt-hour, remaining approximately on the same level as in March. The Estonian price was only 11 cents higher than in the Finnish zone and 12.43 euros lower than the price of electricity in Latvia and Lithuania, where it reached 44.07 euros.

The NPS system price fell by 4.6 per cent in the previous month, to 25.52 euros per megawatt-hour. In the regions with hydroelectric power production capacity, the prices generally decreased, while increasing in the regions where combined plants prevail. At the end of April, the available reserves in Norwegian hydro reservoirs exceeded the 2013 level by 36 percentage points. All in all, the Nordic electricity balance sheet ran a 1.6 terawatt-hour surplus last month.

Latvia managed to cover 96 per cent of its electricity consumption in April due to the spring floods, while Lithuania was able to cover only 16 per cent of domestic consumption. Although the electricity balance sheet of Estonia ran a surplus, the Baltic region as a whole had to import 539 gigawatt-hours of electricity in order to cover consumption. 36 per cent of the Baltic deficit was covered with import from third countries and 64 per cent with import from Finland.

Despite the average base and peak load price on the European Power Exchange decreasing in April, it remained higher than average NPS system price, 31.17 and 33.06 euros per megawatt-hour respectively.

The prices of CO2 emission quotas remained in the range 4.68–5.71 euros/ton in April, compared to 4.34–6.90 euros in March. Elering assessed the average price of natural gas imported to Estonia in April to be 29.82 euros per megawatt-hour. The price of natural gas has an effect on cost price of electricity production in Latvia and Lithuania, and the price of natural gas imported to these countries has an indirect effect on the development of the electricity price in Estonia.

Based on the financial transactions on the Nasdaq OMX Commodities market, the price of electricity in the NPS Estonian price zone may rise to 35.05 euros in May 2014 and the average price of the third quarter of 2014 to 39.42 euros per megawatt-hour. The price of financial transactions in May decreased by 1.25 euros compared to the end of March, while the expected price of the third quarter increased by 4.07 euros.

In the Estonian-Latvian transmission capacity auction for April, held in the middle of March, the PTR limited end price was 9.06 euros per megawatt-hour. In total, six market stakeholders participated in the PTR limited auction for April.

The full market overview for April is available here (in Estonian).