The price of electricity futures for the beginning of the year rose by more than 50% in October. The main reason behind this was the breakage of the Balticconnector pipe, but especially 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.
According to Energiateollisuus ry’s director responsible for the electricity market Pekka Salomaa, while future prices are not reliable forecasts, they do indicate at what point protections are made for a particular moment. He warns that while the price of electricity is currently lower than it was last winter or a year ago, it is still higher than before the last few years. In fact, updated hourly prices on Monday show that the taxable price of stock exchange electricity will be as high as 96 cents per kilowatt hour on Tuesday.
Salomaa reminds consumers that while there have been significant fluctuations in electricity prices in the past, there will likely continue to be fluctuations in the future. Despite this, he encourages consumers to consider fixed-price contracts without a consumption effect as they may not be the most favorable option in the long term due to risk premiums charged by electricity companies. This is because companies cannot accurately predict when customers will consume their electricity, and this risk must be priced into contracts.