In October the Lowest Electricity Exchange Price was 7.02 Euros

The Estonian day-ahead market’s lowest hourly rate in October was 7.02 euros, which was also the lowest calculated price in 2014 as at the end of last month. Monthly average electricity price decreased last month by 6.4 per cent achieving 40.22 euros per megawatt-hour.

Last month’s Estonian electricity exchange price coincided with the Finnish price for almost 84 per cent of all hours. At the same time, the Estonian and Latvian electricity exchange price coincided for only 38 per cent of all hours in October. 90% of the transmission capacity between Estonia and Latvia was utilized.

In the Latvian price area October’s average price decreased by 6.5 per cent compared to September, achieving 53.73 euros per megawatt-hour. The average price in Lithuania was 53.82 euros and Finland’s electricity price was 36.72 euros last month. The NPS System Price remained at an average of 30.61 euros per megawatt-hour, decreasing by 12.3 per cent.

In October, power flows were directed from Finland to Estonia for 727 hours and from Estonia to Finland for 18 hours. Interconnections reached their maximum capacity for 120 hours in the direction from Finland to Estonia; while the full capacity in the direction from Estonia to Finland was not used at all.

Estonian market participants purchased 88 per cent of the electricity necessary for domestic usage from day-ahead and intra-day markets. 91 per cent of electricity produced in Estonia last month was sold through the exchange.

In October, the prices of carbon dioxide emission quotas that influence the electricity price in the Baltic countries remained at September’s level, ranging from 5.66 to 6.39 euros per tonne. Elering estimates that the average monthly price of natural gas imported to Estonia in October was 32.13 euros per megawatt-hour.

As a result of September’s PTR-Limited auction the price of PTRs was 6.00 euros per megawatt-hour. Since the real price difference between the Estonian and Latvian NPS price areas was 13.51 euros in October, the profits for the market participants who purchased limited PTRs were 839 006 euros.

Based on the transactions made in the Nasdaq OMX Commodities market, the electricity price in Estonian NPS price area may be 34.85 euros per megawatt-hour in November and 43.15 euros per megawatt-hour in the first quarter of 2015.

The full market report for October is available here (in Estonian).