Prices on the Power Exchange in December were the Lowest of the Year

In December the price in the Estonian price area of the Nordic power exchange Nord Pool Spot was 32.6 euros MWh, which is the lowest price recorded during all the time that Estonia has been part of the exchange and close to the regulated market price for household consumers.

The NPS Estonia price of 32.6 EUR/MWh in December was the lowest in the whole Nordic and Baltic region. Prices in both Estonia and Finland were 21% down on their November levels and the average system price was down 18% at 33.74 EUR/MWh. Prices fell so sharply in December because the weather was much warmer than expected, meaning that consumption was lower than predicted, while production capacity in the region showed no sign of any shortage. 

In December a total of 539 GWh of electricity were sold in the NPS Estonia price area, with Estonian market participants selling 465 GWh (86%). Compared to previous months there was a steep rise in the amounts sold by Lithuanian market participants because the price in Baltpool was lower than the price in the Estonian price area around one quarter of the time. In December Lithuanian market participants sold 74 GWh of electricity and Latvians 4 GWh. 

A total of 427 GWh of electricity were bought from the NPS Estonia price area in December, which represents a slight fall from November’s 487 GWh. Estonian market participants bought 57% of this, Latvians bought 38% and Lithuanians 5%. The amount bought by the Estonian market participants covered 33% of our domestic consumption.

In December exports to Latvia  reached 165 GWh and 22 GWh were exported to Lithuania, figures which represented a drop of 21% and 55% respectively from November. The fall in exports was caused by higher output from the CHP plants in Latvia and Lithuania.

The price of CO2 emission permits was also at a low for the year in December at 6.9 EUR/t. This fall also happened because consumption was much lower than expected, meaning that the number of unused greenhouse gas permits for electricity generation rose.
The flow of electricity in the EstLink 1 cable was in the direction Estonia-Finland 77% of the time in December, and in the direction Finland-Estonia 23% of the time.

A complete summay about NPS Estonia in December can be found here (only in Estonian).