In May, 32% More Electricity was Bought from the NPS Power Exchange

Trading in the Estonia price area of the Nord Pool Spot (NPS) power exchange was affected above all in May by the fall in cheap hydroelectricity production in Latvia, which led to an increase in amounts bought from the exchange and a rise in the electricity price in the Estonia price area back to normal levels.

A total of 284 GWh of electricity were bought in the Estonia price area in May, which is around 32% more than in the previous month. Of the electricity bought from the exchange, 37.8% went to cover Estonian domestic consumption, which is the largest proportion this year.

The amounts of electricity sold in the Estonia price area increased by 9% from their April levels to 478 GWh. The main reason for the increase in sales was the price difference between the Estonia and Finland price areas and the rise in the average price of electricity in the Estonia, Finland and Baltpool price areas.

The biggest factor driving prices in April was Latvian hydroelectricity production, which fell in the first and last weeks of May and led to the end of sales of cheaper electricity in the month overall. The fall in production in May led to an increase in the proportion of imported electricity in consumption in the Baltic region. The average price in the NPS Estonia price area in May was 47.37 EUR/MWh, which was similar to the price in February and March but 7 EUR/MWh higher than the April price.

Exports to Finland fell by 21% and to Lithuania by 10% from the previous month, but exports to Latvia rose by 91%. The drop in exports to Finland was caused by an emergency switch-off of the EstLink1 cable at the end of the month, and scheduled maintenance to the cable. The May prices in NPS Estonia and in the Lithuanian power exchange Baltpool converged, which meant that it was equally profitable for producers to use either exchange. The rise in exports to Latvia was related to a significant drop in hydroelectricity production, and as a result the Latvian electricity system became an importing system.

Total exports of electricity in May from NPS Estonia to Finland were 194 GWh, to Latvia 36 GWh and to Lithuania 14 GWh. In May, 23 GWh of electricity were imported from Latvia, 49 GWh from Lithuania and 0.8 GWh from Finland.

The average price in the NPS power exchange, the system price, was 54.49 EUR/MWh in May. The Central Europe electricity price index (EEX Spot ELIX) for May was 60.99 EUR/MWh, which was 10.13 EUR/MWh higher than in April. The price in the Germany/Austria area rose from 51.58/MWh in April to 56.83 EUR/MWh in May.

Nordic reservoirs were filled to a higher level in May than they were a year ago, with the exception of the last week of the month, but the month’s average price in the NPS system was 11.51 EUR/MWh higher than in the same month a year earlier.

A longer summary in Estonian can be found here.