On Wednesday evening, the wholesale electricity price will reach 4 euros per kWh in the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian price zones of the Nord Pool electricity exchange.
The price jump will be recorded between 18:00 and 19:00.
Currently, Lithuanian consumers on fixed electricity plans pay around 0.20-0.30 cents per kWh.
Four euros per kWh will be a new record for electricity prices in Lithuania and will almost double the previous record.
Lithuania buys around 70-80 percent of its electricity on the exchange and generates around 20-30 percent of its own electricity.
According to experts, the price spike is due to the very high cost of gas used for electricity production, heatwaves that increase electricity consumption, as well as repair works.
Algorithms on the Nord Pool exchange, which prevent the sale of cheaper electricity if the amount of electricity on offer does not match demand, may also be contributing to the price increase.
The majority of household consumers in Lithuania have fixed electricity plans, so they should not worry about the price jump, said Artūras Ketlerius, spokesperson for Lithuania's state-owned energy group Ignitis.
“Consumers with smart meters and electricity plans linked to hourly electricity use should be more worried. There are very few such customers. They follow the exchange prices and depending on what the exchange price is, they may decide to switch off their household equipment,” he said.
Ketlerius advised that customers with smart meters should not charge their electric cars or run washing machines between 18:00 and 19:00 on Wednesday.
Some businesses might also be affected by the electricity price spike.
“One euro per kWh was already a cosmic price. Then, it was two euros, which is also cosmic. Four euros is beyond absurd,” Vidmantas Janulevičius, head of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists, told LRT.lt
According to him, previously, industrial companies had fixed electricity tariffs. However, when prices started to rise, electricity suppliers terminated their contracts, and now most firms are forced to pay the hourly exchange price.
On Wednesday evening, some manufacturing companies will likely reduce production volumes, Janulevičius said.
The Norfa supermarket chain has also announced that it will significantly reduce the lighting and turn off cooling and ventilation in its stores at 18:00 on Wednesday.
“We want to draw the attention of the government to the unprecedented prices on the electricity market and ask them to take measures to normalise the situation,” Dainius Dundulis, a representative of Norfa, was quoted as saying in a press release.
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