Power Flow from Finland to Estonia Reaches 1000 Megawatts in January

In January, power flow from Finland to Estonia reached 1000 megawatts, when the demand in the Baltic countries exceeded the total capacity of EstLink 1 and EstLink 2 connections for seven hours on 10 January.

Reaching the total capacity of the EstLink connections and an average Finland-Estonia power flow of 600 megawatts in January once again prove the need for cross-border connections and the advantages of the common electricity market for consumers, said Elering’s Chairman of the Board, Taavi Veskimägi.

In January, the electricity exchange price on the Estonian day-ahead market was 33.83 euros per megawatt-hour, 9.6 per cent lower than in December. At the same time, in Finland the price was only three cents lower. In January, prices in the Estonian and Finnish price areas were equal for approximately 98 per cent of the time.

In Latvia and Lithuania, the price of electricity was almost six euros higher, at 39.78 euros per megawatt-hour. Nevertheless, there was an 18.6 per cent decline in the price in these areas.

The system price in the common Nordic electricity exchange Nord Pool Spot (NPS) fell by five per cent last month to an average of 30.08 euros per megawatt-hour. As in December, the lowest prices in the NPS system were to be found in Denmark, where negative electricity prices were the result of favourable wind conditions. The lowest price was minus 31.41 euros per megawatt-hour for several hours in the early morning of 2 January.

Carbon dioxide emission quota prices, which also influence the price of electricity production, continued to rise slowly in January and ranged from 6.71 to 7.32 euros per tonne.

In January, participants in the Estonian market bought 90 per cent of the electricity energy needed to cover domestic consumption from the exchange. In addition, 90 per cent of electricity produced was sold through the exchange.

Based on the financial transactions of the last two trading days on the Nasdaq OMX Commodities market, the electricity price in the NPS Estonian price area could be 39.50 euros per megawatt-hour in February 2015 and the average price of the second quarter could be 33.90 euros per megawatt-hour.

Market participants who bought risk hedging instruments or PTRs-limited sold by Estonian and Latvian transmission system operators earned over 450 000 euros profit in January.