The power exchange in October saw sales volumes rise 10%

Sales volumes in the power exchange were around 10% higher than those of the previous month, while amounts purchased from the exchange have been declining for several months.

In October 382.8 GWh of electricity were bought in the Nord Pool Spot (NPS) Estonia price area. The average daily purchase volumes were around 6% lower than those in September. Significantly, exports to Latvia fell by around 25% compared to the previous month, amounting to 127.3 GWh. The amounts purchased have been falling since August, mainly due to a fall in exports to Latvia and Lithuania. Latvia and Lithuania have started up several combined heat and power (CHP) plants in response to the demand for heat, but the continuing cold weather will strongly push up demand for electricity too, and it can be expected that the boost to electricity sales offers in the Baltic region that stemmed from the start up of the CHP plants will wane.

Elering is developing an action plan to minimise the risk that in winter there will be insufficient sales offers in the Estonia price area to cover the growing demand for electricity.

Sales volumes rose in October to 452.9 GWh because of differences in the prices in the Estonian and Finnish price areas. Average daily volumes sold increased by nearly 10% compared to September, and in October the energy flow went from Estonia to Finland 71% of the time. In October the electricity price in Finland was higher by an average of 1.8 EUR/MWh.

The amount of electricity being bought into Estonia from the power exchange has been stable since July at around 38% of domestic consumption.

The average price in the NPS Estlink price area in October was 49.47 EUR/MWh, which was 2.3% down on September. The price fluctuated between 33.81 and 73.2 EUR/MWh. The average price on the Lithuanian power exchange Baltpool was 2.31 EUR/MWh higher than the price in the NPS Estonia price area.

The turnover of electricity bought in the Estonian price area of the Nordic power exchange Nord Pool Spot (NPS) in October was 19.1 million euros, and the turnover of electricity sold was 22.5 million euros.

Two notable events took place in October in the power exchange, the first of which was that on 19 October NPS intra-day trading joined Elbas. Although the amounts traded on the intra-day market were quite low in October, totalling 0.1 GWh in 11 days, it is still a clear first sign of life for the market. The Elbas market allows intra-day trading and covers all the countries that are part of NPS, from the Nordic countries to Germany. Whereas the day-ahead market is mainly aimed at and used for the buying and selling of electricity, the intra-day market enables market participants to buy or sell missing amounts of electricity on the same day, within certain rules. On 19 October the whole transmission capacity of the cable between Estonia and Finland was given to the intra-day market.

The second event was that on 1 October the NPS Estlink price area was renamed as the NPS Estonia price area. The changes meant that all of the rules of transparency that apply in the Nordic countries must also be followed in our price area by all market participants, including the TSO.