Electricity futures prices for the beginning of the year have seen a significant increase of over 50 percent in October. The primary reasons behind this rise are the breakdown of the Balticconnector pipe and the ongoing tension in the Middle East. On November 16th, when we checked, the electricity futures price for January-March was almost 9.5 cents, but trading at just under seven cents for the same time period.
According to Energiateollisuus ry’s director responsible for the electricity market Pekka Salomaa, fear no longer has an impact on electricity futures prices. He reminds that while future prices are not always accurate forecasts, they do provide information on protection costs at specific times.
Is the electricity price crisis finally over? Salomaa believes that there will still be fluctuations in electricity prices in the future, but they will be lower than before. While current prices are lower than they were last winter or a year ago, they are still higher than before a few years ago. On Monday, updated hourly prices show that taxable stock exchange electricity will cost as much as 96 cents per kilowatt hour on Tuesday. Salomaa emphasizes that despite recent high stock exchange electricity prices during November and December’s cold weather, it is now clear that Finland’s electricity supply situation is much better than it was a year ago.
In recent weeks, stock exchange electricity has been relatively high considering factors such as temperature and time of year. In particular, during November 11-17th week (November 11-17), average daily energy trading rates were more than ten cents per kilowatt hour on most days except Sunday night (November 18th). Even at night when energy trading rates tend to be lower, stock exchange electricity did not drop significantly in price compared to other times of day due to increased demand from industrial customers seeking warmer temperatures during winter months.