News & events

2012-07-25

Smooth First Month’s Trade at the Nord Pool Spot Power Exchange

It has already been a month since the bidding area of Nordic power exchange Nord Pool Spot has been launched in Lithuania. The average wholesale electricity price at the exchange last month was 16 ct/kWh – just as in June-July 2011. More than 20 participants actively traded at the exchange, and the average daily trade volume amounted to approximately 20,000 megawatt hours (MWh). The month’s trade volume stood at 0.63 terawatt hours (TWh), whereas it totalled 0.7 TWh of electricity this time last year.
 
Within the first days, market participants fluently adapted to the trade system of the new market operator, and the wholesale electricity price eventually approached the usual average. This clearly shows that the electricity price at the exchange is transparent and objective. 
 
Last month, electricity prices differed in the Scandinavian, Estonian, and Lithuanian bidding areas of Nord Pool Spot. The electricity price went particularly low in Scandinavia. This was mostly determined by a high supply and lower consumption on the electricity market: an unusually large amount of electricity was produced from the especially abundant water reserves of hydroelectric power plants, and the consumption was significantly influenced by the lower demand of industrial enterprises.
Electricity prices in the Scandinavian and Estonian bidding areas differed due to a low interconnection capacity (350 MW) of the Estlink power link between Finland and Estonia. Prices in the Estonian and Lithuanian bidding areas differed due to the limited interconnection capacity between the Estonian and Latvian power systems and, therefore, Lithuania receives only a small amount of cheaper electricity from Estonia and there is hardly any effect on the electricity price in Lithuania.
 
So far, Lithuania has been an isolated bidding area of the Nord Pool Spot power exchange. After the Latvian bidding area of Nord Pool Spot is launched in 2013 and the Lithuania-Sweden NordBalt power link is completed in 2015, Lithuania will be able to use all the advantages of the trade on the large Nordic market at the full capacity.