Latvian Electricity Price Hits Record High Compared To Estonia in October

According to reports from the Nord Pool Spot (NPS) Nordic electricity exchange, the average electricity price in the Estonian price area in October was 34.97 euros per megawatt-hour, but in the Latvian and Lithuanian price areas the price was 56.44 euros at the same time. This means that the difference between the prices was 21.5 euros, the highest monthly price difference in recent years.

In comparison with September, the electricity exchange price increased by 10.3 per cent in Estonia, and 27.4 per cent in Latvia and Lithuania. The average price in the Finnish price area in October was 33.49 euros per megawatt-hour, increasing by 5.5 per cent in a month. The NPS system price increased by 26.8 per cent in October, reaching 22.13 euros per megawatt-hour.

After day-ahead transmission capacity distribution, Estonian-Finnish power flow was directed from Finland to Estonia for 734 hours and from Estonia to Finland for 11 hours. In the Finnish-Estonian direction, 66 per cent of the transmission capacity given for trading was used. The power flow between Estonia and Latvia was in the direction from Estonia to Latvia for 744 hours and from Latvia to Estonia for one hour. 97 per cent of transmission capacity in the Estonian-Latvian direction was used, whereas the total transmission capacity of the connection was used in its entirety for 612 hours.

In comparison with September, there were no significant changes in carbon dioxide emission quota prices, which influence the price of electricity production. The lowest closing price was 7.96 euros and the highest price 8.65 euros per tonne.

On the Nasdaq OMX Commodities market, the prices of transactions with derivative instruments for the NPS Estonian price area were 35.6 euros per megawatt-hour for October and 34.29 euros per megawatt-hour for the first quarter of 2016.

In October, transmission capacity profits totalled one million euros from the Estonian-Finnish connections and 10.6 million euros from the Estonian-Latvian connections. The yearly, quarter and month product auction prices for risk hedging instruments or PTRs-limited sold to market participants were much lower than the actual price difference between the Estonian and Latvian price areas. As a result, market participants who bought PTRs-limited earned 4.9 million euros in profit in October. Elering’s profit for cross-border capacity distribution was 3.38 million euros.