Latvian regulator: 'Technical error' may be behind record electricity price
Wednesday's record electricity price could have been the result of a technical error on the Nord Pool exchange, the head of Latvia's public utilities commission, the SPRK, says.
Alda Ozola, SPRK chair, said that the error may have arisen after the capacity of a power plant in Lithuania had not been taken into account, even though its output had been offered to market, ETV news show "Aktuaalne kaamera" (AK) reported Thursday.
Ozola said that her colleagues in Lithuania share her opinion, adding it may take time to clarify circumstances in cooperation on electricity generation across all three Baltic States before drawing any final conclusions.
On Wednesday, between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., electricity in Estonia was quoted on the Nord Pool at €4,000 per MWh, by far an all-time record for hourly rates and the maximum permitted by the European Commission. The price level during that hour was identical in Latvia and Lithuania.
A shortage of supply has been blamed, resulting from many power plants in Estonia conducting summer maintenance simultaneously, meaning they have been offline. Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) has called for more transparency on the Nord Pool and speculated that electricity suppliers may have been acting as a cartel.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
