Power Exchange System Price Up in April, Baltic Prices Down on Latvian Hydro Energy

The price of electricity on the Nord Pool Spot (NPS) Nordic power exchange continued to climb in the first half of April, and despite the warmer weather arriving in the second half, the final system price for the month grew by 2.4 percent to 45.91 euros per megawatt-hour.

The price increase was down to the low levels of hydro energy – compared to the same time last year, fill rates of hydro reservoirs in Norway were 44 percent lower. This meant that last month, Norway’s domestic production only covered 87 percent of consumption, compared to 94 percent in March. In addition, the system price stayed high because of the cold weather persisting until half way through the month.

Unlike the system price, the NPS Estonia price area saw a drop of 4.4 percent in April, to 43.31 euros per megawatt-hour. Besides Estonia, the market price of electricity also dropped in the NPS ELE, NPS Lithuania and NPS Finland price areas, by 4.4%, 3.3% and 2.4% respectively. All three areas recorded slightly higher electricity prices than Estonia.

The price of electricity in the Baltics was significantly affected by the growth in Latvia’s output in the second half of April, when the abrupt increase in the flow rate of the Daugava River allowed for more hydro energy production. Thanks to the large hydro energy output, domestic production in Latvia exceeded consumption by 22 percent, and the surplus electricity was exported to neighbouring countries. The growth of imports from Latvia led Lithuania to decrease its imports from Russia and Belarus.

Power flow across the EstLink 1 interconnection between Estonia and Finland was varied in the first half of April, going in the direction from Finland to Estonia in the daytime and from Estonia to Finland at night. Net exports from Estonia to Finland came to 46 gigawatt-hours in April. In that month, EstLink 1 was at maximum transmission capacity for 174 hours in the direction from Estonia to Finland, and for 93 hours in the direction from Finland to Estonia. The Estonian-Latvian interconnection saw a transmission capacity shortfall for a total of 66 hours.

The price of natural gas imported into Estonia dropped by nearly two percent in April by Elering’s estimation, to 32.93 euros per megawatt-hour. The price drop was facilitated by the strengthening of the Euro and the drop in oil prices.

The price of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission quotas has stayed low since the start of the year. In April, the price of emission quotas fell from 5.11 euros per ton at the start of the month, to 2.70 euros per ton at the end.

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