Domestic electricity prices in Finland, Sweden up to 40% cheaper than in Estonia

Regular households in Finland and Sweden can set their annual electricity bills at levels 30-40 percent lower than those charged to comparable households in Estonia.

The main factors behind lower electricity prices in the Scandinavian nations are the large reliance on hydroelectric and nuclear power.

Estonia has no mountainous terrain, meaning hydroelectric power is largely out of the question (though a now-decommissioned hydroelectric power station was built in Jõesuu, east of Tallinn).

Estonia also has no nuclear power station; plans for building a small nuclear reactor are much discussed, but this would take around a decade to implement even once a decision is made.

Meanwhile, Estonia also lacks sufficient cable links with the Nordic countries for prices to equalize at all times.

The same is true for Latvia and Lithuania. The margin charged on exchange packages in Finland and Sweden is also significantly lower than in Estonia.

According to elektrihind.ee, a household in Estonia consuming 2,400 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per year can fix their price at 12.69 cents per kWh. In Finland, the price is 9.1 cents per kilowatt-hour. In Stockholm, it comes to 7.38 cents per kWh, according to local comparison sites.

This means electricity can be fixed 28.3 percent cheaper in Finland. In Sweden, the difference is even greater, at 41.8 percent cheaper compared with Estonia.

As for exchange packages, Estonia’s cheapest option at 2,400 kWh carries a margin of 0.64 cents per kWh, compared with 0.42 cents in Finland, and 0.54 cents in Sweden: 34.4 percent and 15.8 percent lower, respectively.

The trend is similar for higher consumption rates, such as 12,000 kWh per year—roughly equating to one smaller house.

Compared with Estonia, electricity in Latvia is 8 percent more expensive with fixed packages, but there is a 29 percent lower margin on exchange packages in Estonia’s immediate neighbor to the south. In Lithuania, the cheapest fixed package is 4.3 percent cheaper than in Estonia, though the exchange package margin is over three times higher.