Electricity futures prices for the beginning of the year have seen a significant increase of over 50 percent in October. The main reasons behind this are the breakage of the Balticconnector pipe and the re-inflamed situation in the Middle East. When the electricity futures price for January-March was almost 9.5 cents in mid-October, we visited on November 16 to find that trading had dropped to just under seven cents for the same time period.
“The fear effect has now completely melted away from electricity futures prices,” says Energiateollisuus ry’s director responsible for the electricity market Pekka Salomaa. He reminds that future prices are not reliable forecasts, but rather indicate at what price protections are made for that particular moment.
Is the electricity price crisis finally over? While the price of electricity is now at a lower level than it was last winter or a year ago, it is still higher than before the last few years. According to updated hourly prices on Monday, the taxable price of stock exchange electricity will be as high as 96 cents per kilowatt hour on Tuesday. Salomaa reminds us that while the electricity supply situation in Finland is now clearly better than a year ago, there will still be significant fluctuations in electricity prices in the future.
In recent weeks, we have seen high prices for stock electricity considering both seasonal factors and temperature fluctuations. During the third week of November (November 11-17), the average price of electricity on the exchange was more than 10 cents on most days, with Thursday 16 November seeing a daily average price of no less than 16.3 cents per kilowatt hour. Even at night when it is typically cheaper, exchange electricity did not drop significantly in price.
Salomaa advises consumers to be cautious when choosing their energy contracts and suggests avoiding fixed contracts without consumption effects, as they may come with hidden fees due to risk premiums that cannot be accurately predicted by energy companies based solely on estimated consumption times by customers