"The electricity prices this summer have been the lowest of all the four summers over which the Nord Pool Spot exchange has been operating in Lithuania. Compared to Northern European countries, where last month's price was the lowest in 14 years, we are still in the high electricity price zone. However, from the start of next year the price curve will approximate to the Scandinavian one, because we will have the possibility of importing electricity directly from Scandinavia through the NordBalt link," said Robertas Staniulis, Head of the Market Development Section of Litgrid.
In July Lithuania imported 64% of the consumed electricity: half from Latvia, Estonia and Finland and the rest from third countries. The amount of electricity that Lithuania imported from the northern part of Europe fell by 10% due to lower river levels in Latvia with consequently less production of hydro electricity. This drop was compensated by importing one third more electricity from Kaliningrad.
The Lithuania Power Plant helped to maintain a stable price of electricity in Lithuania by producing 53% of all local electricity. There was also a 44% rise in the production of wind energy.
In the Scandinavian bidding zones, the average price of electricity fell by one third to EUR 9.6/MWh.
With the beginning of the holiday season, electricity consumption in Sweden fell by 7%. In Sweden's SE4 bidding zone, which will be connected to Lithuania by the NordBalt cable, the July price was 50% lower than in June, at EUR 9.2/MWh and almost equal to prices in the rest of Sweden.
In the Finnish bidding zone the price was pushed up 28% to EUR 27.6/MWh by increased demand and falling local production. On 20 July Finland imported electricity from Estonia due to supply shortage. The average prices were almost equal in these two countries last month. In Estonia the price of electricity reached EUR 28.1/MWh.
In Poland, the average price of electricity in July grew by 3% to EUR 39.4/MWh. In Germany the price of electricity rose by one-fifth and reached EUR 35/MWh. The main reason for the rise in the price of electricity was the 25% decrease of nuclear electricity output and its substitution by output of plants using fossil fuels.
