News & events

2013-09-12

Generation and transmission capacity shortage in the Baltic region raises prices on the power exchange

After generation at Finland's Olkiluoto 2 nuclear reactor stopped unexpectedly on 9 September, electricity supply in Finland decreased. Electricity shortages and growing demand are causing a significant spike in electricity prices in Finland and in the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian bidding areas of Nord Pool Spot, the common Nordic-Baltic electricity power exchange. Wholesale electricity prices in the Lithuanian bidding area of the Nord Pool Spot exchange reached 27 cents per kilowatt-hour (ct/kWh) today. Today's increase in the price of electricity in Lithuania (and Latvia) was also impacted by the limited electricity imports from Estonia and Russia due to power transmission line repairs.
 
Despite the fact that today's increase in electricity prices depends on factors in Scandinavia, the benefit of the integration with the Scandinavian countries to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is shown by the fact that during the eight months of this year, 824.6 GWh of cheaper Scandinavian  electricity was delivered to the Baltic States via the Estonian-Finnish interconnection. This is more than double the power supplied from the Baltic countries to Scandinavia for the same period - 405 GWh.
 
When electricity prices in Scandinavia are high, Baltic producers have the opportunity to sell electricity profitably. In winter, and especially in spring and autumn, Scandinavian hydroelectric plants produce an abundance of cheap electricity, which can then be supplied to the Baltic electricity markets and consumers.