Spot price

The spot price is the "raw price": what electricity costs on Nord Pool before retailers add their margin and standing charge. The consumer price is: spot + margin + 25.5 % VAT.

The spot price varies by hour. Cheap hours are typically at night (01–05), on weekends and on windy days (when a lot of cheap wind power feeds the grid). Expensive hours are the morning and evening peaks (07–09 and 17–20), especially during cold windless winter days.

Finland's five-year average has been about 6–7 c/kWh, but single hours have exceeded 50 c/kWh (winter cold snaps) and gone negative (summer windy weekends).

A spot contract holder can save by shifting big loads to the cheapest hours.

When is the spot price lowest in a day?

Typical Finnish hourly profile on winter weekdays:

Night 01–05: cheapest, often 3–6 c/kWh. Industrial demand at minimum.

Morning peak 07–09: most expensive, often 10–20 c/kWh. People wake up, industry starts.

Day 10–16: moderate, 6–12 c/kWh.

Evening peak 17–20: second most expensive, 10–18 c/kWh. Cooking and heating.

Evening 21–00: falling, 5–10 c/kWh.

Weekends average 15–30 % lower than weekdays — less industrial demand.

How the spot price affects your monthly bill

For a spot customer the monthly bill is calculated hourly: (hour's consumption × spot price) + margin + standing charge + taxes.

E.g. if you used 20 kWh at 02:00 when spot was 3 c/kWh and 15 kWh at 18:00 when spot was 14 c/kWh:

02:00: 20 × (3 + 0.4 margin) / 100 = €0.68

18:00: 15 × (14 + 0.4) / 100 = €2.16

Two hours total: €2.84 — even though the second hour used less kWh, it cost 3× more.

Negative spot prices

The spot price can go negative — rare in Finland but seen on sunny and windy summer weekends, e.g. -1.5 c/kWh. A negative price means producers PAY for electricity fed into the grid.

Spot customers BENEFIT: the energy fee becomes negative, so you receive money back for that hour's consumption. Margin and standing charge remain, but e.g. 20 kWh at -1 c/kWh gives -€0.20 + €0.08 margin = -€0.12, i.e. you gain 12 cents.