Estlink price area well under way: intraday trading to be launched in May

Trading within the Estlink price area has started well, which reflects the functioning of the Nordic electricity market model also in the adjacent regions. A reliable market price is a necessity so that capital investments in electricity production, safeguarding the security of supply, could be carried out in the Baltic countries at market terms. Seamless co-operation between the transmission system operators has also been in a key role in the project.The pivotal objective of the Estlink price area of the Nordic electricity exchange Nord Pool Spot, introduced at the beginning of April, is to integrate the electricity markets in Finland and Estonia and to create a reliable market price for electricity initially within Estonia. The Finnish transmission system operator Fingrid and its Estonian counterpart Elering rented approx. 250 megawatts of transmission capacity from the owners of the Estlink connection for use by Nord Pool Spot. The total capacity of the link is 350 MW. The creation of the new price area will expedite the EstLink 2 submarine cable project, because the opening of the market in the Baltic countries has been one of the crucial preconditions for the construction of the cable link. In the next stage, the goal is to integrate the electricity markets in Latvia and Lithuania to Nord Pool Spot’s trading system. Elering and Fingrid have also decided to launch intraday trading between Estonia and Finland as of 3 May 2010. The terms of the intraday trading are available in Nord Pool Spot’s information bulletin.