Elering and Fingrid have applied to the Competition Authority to cut the volume of Finland–Estonia electricity price hedging instruments (FTRs) from 650 megawatts to 350 megawatts starting the year after next.

Kalvi Nõu, energy trading portfolio manager at seller Alexela, said reducing hedging options would limit the market's ability to manage price risks and likely translate into higher prices for consumers, with market estimates suggesting increases of around 10 percent or more. He criticized the proposal for lacking a transparent and thorough public impact assessment and argued it runs counter to the state's expectations that Elering ensure competitive end-user energy prices.

Enefit management board member Tiit Hõbejõgi said the plan would shift more risk onto electricity sellers and consumers. While more expensive or fewer FTRs would raise the cost of offering fixed-price contracts, he noted that the ultimate price impact would depend on demand — remaining modest if interest in fixed packages declines, but potentially rising more sharply if market uncertainty increases demand for price stability.

Nõu also pointed to the position of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), which considers FTRs financial instruments and does not support reducing them solely on operational security grounds. He argued the key issue is whether consumers retain meaningful options to hedge price risks and warned that limiting such tools would inevitably lead to higher electricity bills.

Elering CEO Kalle Kilk said the change would redistribute risk rather than increase overall costs, noting that currently all consumers, including those on market-based packages, bear the cost of potential interconnector failures. Under the proposal, fixed-rate customers would bear more of that risk, leading to an estimated price increase of about 2 to 3 percent for those packages, while overall costs to society would remain unchanged.

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