last week, the wholesale price of electricity decreased by 40%.

As warm and sunny weather prevailed in Lithuania last week, electricity consumption was the lowest in a year, and negative prices were formed at noon on Wednesday, the operator of the Lithuanian electricity transmission system, Litgrid, reports.

According to the company, from April 29 to May 5, the average weekly wholesale price of electricity in the Lithuanian price zone of the Nord Pool exchange decreased by 40 percent compared to the previous week. – from 83 Eur/MWh to 50 Eur/MWh. In Latvia and Estonia, the average wholesale electricity price was the same as in Lithuania.

“Last week, the lowest electricity consumption this year was recorded in Lithuania – 186 GWh per week, and the last time such a low electricity demand was a year ago. The main reason is the day off on Wednesday, but the warm and sunny weather also contributed. On Wednesday, between 11:00 and 18:00, electricity prices in Lithuania were negative and fluctuated around -2 EUR/MWh. Recently, negative prices in the market have become more and more common on sunny days off, when the demand for electricity is minimal and the production of renewable resources is extremely high.

For example, in Lithuania on Wednesday during lunch, the generation of solar power plants alone reached about 860 MW, while the consumption did not reach – 1100 MW. At 11 o’clock on Thursday, the solar power plants achieved another hourly production record – 870 MW”, said Aistė Krasauskienė, head of Litgrid’s Market Development Department, in a statement.

Electricity consumption in Lithuania decreased by 21% during the week in question. – from 234 GWh to 186 GWh. In Lithuania, local power plants provided 86 percent. of the country’s electricity consumption. In total, 160 GWh of electricity was produced in Lithuania last week, which is 12 percent. up from a week ago, when domestic production reached 143 GWh.

According to Litgrid, wind farms produced the most electricity. Their production grew by 14 percent. – from 57 GWh to 65 GWh. The production of solar power plants grew even faster – about 60 percent, from 30 GWh to 47 GWh. The generation of hydroelectric plants increased by 12 percent, from 20 GWh to 22 GWh. And thermal power plants connected to the transmission network generated 36 percent. less than a week ago, their production fell from 21 GWh to 13 GWh. At that time, other power plants produced 12 GWh.

According to the ratio of import and/or export, 32 percent. of the country’s electricity needs was imported. Compared to the previous week, total imports decreased by 16 percent, from 140 GWh to 117 GWh. When differentiating the country’s imports, 52 percent were imported from Scandinavia via the NordBalt connection, 34 percent. from Latvia, and the remaining 13 percent electricity entered the country through the border with Poland.

The total flow of electricity from Lithuania increased by 44 percent, from 35 GWh to 51 GWh. 6 percent of exports from Lithuania were directed to Sweden, 27 percent. to Latvia, and the remaining 67 percent to export to Poland with the “LitPol Link” connector.

The utilization of the bandwidth of the “LitPol Link” connection for the flow of electricity reached 58 percent. in the direction of Poland and 19 percent. in the direction of Lithuania. NordBalt’s bandwidth utilization was 4 percent. in the direction of Sweden and 52 percent. in the direction of Lithuania.