In October, electricity futures prices for the beginning of the year rose by more than 50 percent. The reasons behind this increase have been attributed to the breakage of the Balticconnector pipe and the re-inflamed situation in the Middle East. According to Pekka Salomaa, director responsible for the electricity market at Energiateollisuus ry, when the electricity futures price for January-March was almost 9.5 cents in mid-October, it had dropped to just under seven cents on November 16th.
Salomaa notes that future prices are not reliable forecasts and only indicate what protections are made at that particular moment. He also cautions against assuming that the electricity price crisis is finally over as there will still be significant fluctuations in electricity prices in the future. The current price of electricity is lower than it was last winter or a year ago but still higher than before a few years. On Monday, updated hourly prices showed that the taxable price of stock exchange electricity would be as high as 96 cents per kilowatt hour on Tuesday.
In recent weeks, the price of stock electricity has been quite high considering the time of year and temperature. 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 a daily average price of no less than 16.3 cents per kilowatt hour on Thursday 16th November. Despite dropping slightly at night when it is usually cheaper, exchange electricity did not drop significantly during this period.
Salomaa advises consumers to carefully consider their options before signing a fixed-term contract without a consumption effect as it may not be financially advantageous in the long run due to risk premiums charged by energy companies for their uncertainty over when customers consume their energy.