This is how the electricity price is affected by the power market in Europe – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio

Electricity prices in Norway are affected by the weather, the power market in Europe and how we use hydropower. Here you will get an explanation of how it is connected: This is how Europe affects electricity in Norway Norway is part of a power market that is linked to Europe. The power market must ensure that electricity is better distributed, so that everyone gets enough electricity and prices are more even. Norway is connected to other countries with power cables. Today, we have 17 such connections abroad. – Some have too much electricity and some have too little electricity. We exchange with each other, says Anders Lie Brenna, editor of Energiwatch. When our neighboring countries have high production and low prices, we in Norway can import power and save water in the power reservoirs. When Germany produces a lot of wind power, electricity becomes cheaper and affects prices here. Low wind, on the other hand, means more expensive electricity from gas and coal, which also pushes up prices in Norway through the power cables. Who decides the price? The electricity price is set every hour throughout Europe. – We consumers have to deal with the price range we belong to. This means that every hour a price is set for where you live and use electricity, explains Brenna. Nord Pool is a marketplace for electricity in the Nordics, but companies from all over Europe can also trade there. – They do not decide the electricity prices. They collect what the power producers want to pay and what the customers are willing to pay, and calculate the price for each area, explains Brenna. Why are electricity prices high? It comes from little wind, low temperatures and little sun. Brenna explains that electricity must be produced and used at the same time. Winter and cold in Europe make people demand more electricity, and in periods with both a low supply of electricity and a lot of cold, prices will increase. – It must be kept in balance all the time. If there is an imbalance, we actually get blackouts. When the Germans have no wind power and no sun, and at the same time have high electricity consumption, they are absolutely desperate for enough electricity to keep the power systems in balance. Then they buy electricity from Norway, and we are obliged to exchange and supply electricity to them. – Why can’t we just use the power from the magazines? – We can, and we do. But we can’t just turn the tap on full blast and let the entire water reservoir flow through. There is a limit to how much you can use at the same time. But without a lot of water in the reservoirs, this would have been much worse, then electricity prices would have been even higher. Why are there such big differences in Norway? In Norway, we have five price ranges. Brenna explains that the Norwegian electricity grid was created to support the districts. – We built hydropower where there were nice waterfalls. Then we built power-intensive industry next to the hydropower plant. We did not build large cables criss-crossing the country. We made sure that every single district area that had a waterfall could have power-intensive industry. It is simply demanding to send electricity from one part of the country to the other. How will electricity prices be in the future? Brenna believes that what we have seen with extremely low and negative electricity prices, and extremely high electricity prices, is a phenomenon that will happen in the future. – I am concerned that we will have many and long periods of extremely high prices and extremely low ones. Both parts are a problem for the power system, says Brenna. He explains that there will be much more sun and wind in Europe, which in turn gives more imbalance. – We are unable to develop enough capacity for either batteries or upgrading hydropower to balance the electricity market in the first few years. This takes time, and we have to get used to the fact that electricity prices will fluctuate a lot in the coming years. Published 12/12/2024, at 17.39



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