(Montel) Baltic day-ahead power prices on Monday settled at a record average of EUR 469.03/MWh, with hourly peaks reaching EUR 1,000.07/MWh, buoyed by cold weather and some power plants being offline for maintenance.
Finland saw similar day-ahead prices, although the average fell short of the all-time high of EUR 505.68/MWh set on 22 February 2010, data from spot exchange Nord Pool showed.
Marko Allikson, a trader at Estonia-based Baltic Energy Partners, attributed the price surge to freezing temperatures boosting demand for heating at a time when 2 GW of thermal production capacity in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was unavailable due to maintenance.
A Finnish trader also cited low wind power generation coupled with restrictions to Finnish hydropower production amid icing issues for contributing to the buoyant spot prices.
Energy firm Fortum said on Monday it would curb hydropower output in the Oulujoki river to 260-340 MW, from available capacity of 440 MW, until 9 December.
Temperatures in Finland were forecast to average -14.5C on Tuesday, around 12.3C below the seasonal norm, according to Montel’s Energy Quantified (EQ), while wind power output would average just 0.5 GW, or 0.7 GW below normal.
In the Baltic region, temperatures would average between -10C and -12C, EQ data showed.
Yet Allikson said he expected spot prices to fall later this week as forecasts indicated milder weather ahead.
