In March, the monthly average price of electricity in Latvia decreased to 68.21 euros per megawatt hour (EUR/MWh), which is the lowest level since April last year. Thus, in March, the price of electricity in Latvia was 9% lower than in February, but compared to March 2023, it decreased by 22%. A similar trend was also observed in neighboring countries: in Lithuania, the price level was identical to Latvia, but in Estonia, the monthly average price was slightly higher – 68.26 EUR/MWh, according to the review of the Latvian electricity market prepared by the Latvian transmission system operator AS “Augstsprieguma tīkls” (AST).
Lower gas prices contributed to the decline in electricity prices, as well as warmer weather, which contributed to a decrease in electricity consumption, and a more intense flood process, which increased the flow of water into rivers and, therefore, the production of electricity in hydroelectric power plants.
Different trends can be observed in the interconnected electricity trading areas of the Baltic States in March in relation to the average electricity price – in Finland and Sweden’s 4th zone, the price increased by 15% or up to 59.38 EUR/MWh and by 14% or up to 56.05 EUR/MWh, respectively. while in Poland the price decreased by 1% or to 75.36 EUR/MWh.
In March, compared to February, the import of electricity to the Baltic states decreased by 19% – from Poland by 25%, Sweden’s 4th price zone and Finland – by 17%, but compared to March 2023, the volume of imports to the Baltics decreased by 25%. In general, the import of electricity to the Baltic States is decreasing for the fourth month in a row, and in March it was almost 2 times lower than in December 2023.
It has already been reported that on January 26 due to damage, the “EstLink 2” electricity connection between Finland and Estonia was unplanned, as a result of which the transmission capacity between Finland and Estonia has been reduced by 650 MW, thus the total transmission capacity has decreased to 350 MW provided by “Estlink 1”. The generating capacity of the Latvian energy system is sufficient to cover Latvia’s consumption, as well as to export electricity to Lithuania and Estonia. In addition, NordPool exchange electricity prices have not been affected by the outage and remain stable. It is currently predicted that the repair of the interconnection could last until the end of August 2024.
