Still very cold, less windy and increased electricity consumption.
Before Friday, the electricity price will rise further, to just over two kroner/kWh throughout the country.
It is the most expensive price in over a year.
It’s starting to look like the fall/winter 2022/2023 price shock, at least temporarily. On average, electricity costs SEK 2.17 over 24 hours in the southern half of the country.
In northern Sweden, the price is marginally lower, around SEK 2.10/kWh, with price peaks of close to SEK 6/kWh in the late afternoon. This can be compared with around one kroner on Thursday. Such high prices were not reached once in 2023. You have to go back to December 2022 to find higher prices.
But it is also record cold in many places, with upwards of minus 40 in the north and double-digit minus degrees far down in southern Sweden. This means that the power peak, the consumption, is estimated to reach the highest level so far this winter, according to Svenska kraftnät’s forecasts. At the same time, electricity production decreases when the wind decreases.
Significantly less wind power
There will be significantly less wind power production during Friday and Saturday. In addition, when one of Forsmark’s nuclear power reactors runs at half power, it has an immediate price effect.
At the beginning of next week, the cold will loosen its grip on Sweden, and lower prices can be expected. The price of over two kroner per kWh on Friday can be compared to the monthly average of 20-30 öre as recently as October, then it rose to 60-80 öre in November-December. In December 2022, when the electricity subsidy debate raged the most, electricity cost on average over the entire month between a sky-high 2 and 2.70 kroner per kWh.
On top of the market price, the electricity company’s surcharge, electricity tax, VAT and grid charge of over one kroner/kWh are added. For those households with regular variable electricity price contracts, it is the monthly average that is the most interesting.