Monday's record electricity price partly due to weather

Monday's record electricity price was the result of the low availability of renewable energy, along with repair work at a Finnish nuclear power station, ETV news show 'Aktuaalne kaamera' (AK) reported Monday.
Agnes Roos, board member at state-owned generator Eesti Energia, told AK that: "One factor is that the weather is very calm, that is, there is no wind energy [being generated]. Similarly, we can also see that the sun is not shining today, meaning there is no solar energy either."
"Our renewable energies have a relatively small capacity at the moment. Another important component for us in this region is the fact that a Finnish nuclear power station, the second block at the Loviisa nuclear power plant, was shut down for maintenance from today. It will remain so until September 9, which will certainly have an impact, as the capacity of this block is a little more than half a terawatt," Roos continued.
AK reported that energy prices will remain high into the autumn and winter, with Eesti Energia citing an average daily price of around €400 per MWh.
The latest of a long line of record electricity prices set Monday saw an overall daily average of €501 per MWh, with the peak hour seeing an electricity price of €861 per MWh.
This compares with the already high average daily price through July of €230 per MWh and a high of €380 per MWh.
The extent to which Monday's high price affects consumers' next electricity bills depends on the consumer themselves, Roos said, adding that a fixed-price contract might be wisest.
Consumers polled by AK cited price rises from 50 percent to threefold on last year, with solutions including switching off underfloor heating and using energy-saving lightbulbs, or even leaving Estonia altogether during the winter months.
Other factors behind recent high prices, including that from last Wednesday when electricity in Estonia cost nearly 40 times that of neighboring Finland, have included "bottlenecks" in transmission.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
Source: 'Aktuaalne kaamera'