Lithuanian Power Prices Climb in May Despite Strong Solar

Average Lithuanian power prices in May increased to about €76/MWh from €60/MWh in April despite solar power plants meeting about 25% of the country’s power demand as hydro power decreased, according to TSO Litgrid.

• Lithuania produced around 232GWh of solar in May – a record amount and almost twice as much in April.
  
• A record of hourly solar generation in the month was achieved on 27 May at 13:00 CET at 996MW – and is likely in the near future that the hourly limit of 1GW will be reached, the TSO said.
• Wind generation produced around 201GWh over the month.
• But power prices rose as hydro output in Latvia decreased as the spring floods came to an end. Latvian generation was at 360GWh in May, down from 630GWh in April.
• And maintenance of Finland's 1.6GW Olkiluoto 3 reactor continued until the middle of the month – also supporting prices.
• Limited capacity on the Nordbalt link between Sweden-Lithuania due to EU Synchronization works led to less cheap Nordic electricity entering Lithuania, with works at the 658MW EstLink2 between Estonian and Finland also curtailing imports to the Baltics.