Consumption fell due to Wednesday's record high electricity prices

On Wednesday, as Estonia's electricity prices hit a peak of €4,000, consumption fell by approximately 100 megawatts as people across the country turned off their devices to save money.
Data from Elering shows that between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., when prices were highest, consumption dropped to 897 megawatts compared to approximately 1,000 at every other hour in the day.
At the same time on Tuesday, consumption was 1,011 megawatts and 954 megawatts the week before.
Gridio, which offers electricity consumption optimization services, highlighted that consumption fell across all three Baltic countries. It dropped the most in Latvia - by 14 percent - followed by Estonia (11 percent) and least in Lithuania (4 percent).
Elering said there were no big differences in consumption throughout the day.
Chairman of Eesti Energia Hando Sutter told ERR's "Uudis+" program, according to Nord Pool, the electricity deficit that pushed prices sky high was less than one megawatt.
"We missed it by about 0.1 percent. To illustrate, one older wind turbine has a capacity of two megawatts," said Sutter. "The market got stuck on the little bit that was missing and created an anomaly, every little bit matters so that such things do not happen."
Fluctuating prices affect customers who do not have fixed rate packages.
Restaurants suspend business in protest
Postimees' Elu24 website reported that several restaurants in Estonia suspended or reduced their working hours between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. to boycott high prices.
The website collected social media posts from pizza chain Pizzapoisid, Berlin Trahter restaurant in Rakvere, Mäeküla kõrts in Järva County and Praangli Island Restaurant which showed the eateries either reduced their services or closed for at least an hour.
Coffeeshop chain Reval turned off all the lights in their cafes but continued to serve customers.
Tallinn's biggest shopping centers Ülemiste keskus and Viru keskus turned off their air-conditioning units.
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Editor: Helen Wright