While the Støre government is planning measures against the high electricity prices in southern Norway, the situation is exactly the opposite in the area north of Dovre and the Sognefjord. Here it is the low electricity prices that cause problems. For owners of small, independent small power plants, the price level means that they are best off not producing power. The costs of operation, wear and tear and maintenance are simply higher than the profit. A small power plant is a small power plant with a production capacity of less than 10 MW. On Friday morning, the electricity price in the north of the country is 0.72 øre per kilowatt hour. – It is a big paradox that the national media focuses on sky-high prices in the south, while power plants in other parts of the country have to stop because it costs the owners more to feed power into the grid than they get for the same power, says Per Jarle Myklebust (Sp ), who is deputy mayor in Gloppen municipality in Nordfjord. The prescription he prescribes is “progress in the upgrading of the national transmission network”. Small power plant owner in the same municipality, Magnar Heimset, points to the same problem: the bottlenecks and the political reluctance to upgrade the power lines between north and south. – I have voted for the Center Party all my adult life and have been politically active in the party for a long time, but now it shows in the loyalty, he says. The background is that parliamentary deputy leader in the Center Party, Geir Pollestad, stated this week that building cables between north and south is “a dead end” and “a completely meaningless measure”. – Now it shows the loyalty to the Center Party, says owner of Heimseta power plant in Nordfjord, Magnar Heimset. Photo: Heimseta power plant 47 per cent must enter into dialogue with the bank The same signal has come from the government. In a chronicle in Nordnorsk debate, Minister and Ap deputy leader Bjørnar Skjæran writes that they do not want to prioritize more power cables from north to south. The rationale is that it is “out of the question to put Central Norway and Northern Norway in the same situation (as Southern Norway)”. According to the head of the Småkraftforeningen, Knut Olav Tveit, equalization is part of the solution: People in different parts of the country must to a greater extent share the same facts and the same assumptions. – Today, the country is almost divided in two. It has major negative consequences on both sides, he says. Due to demarcations in the electricity network, there are differences in the price in different parts of Norway. Photo: Svenska kraftnät In a new report signed by the Småkraftforeningen, it is stated that 47 percent of the power plants in the area with low electricity prices have “insufficient ability to pay off debt”, and must enter into a dialogue with the bank. The report further states that 12 per cent of power plants are “likely to go bankrupt”. – Figures show that the industry has more or less been eradicated, says Knut Olav Tveit. In an article at Nordnorsk debatt, Industry Minister Bjørnar Skjæran (Ap) writes that they will not prioritize more power cables from north to south. Photo: NTB Scanpix – The only way out is to sell Småkraft, head of Sparebanken Vest, Geir Flatjord, knows the picture drawn in the report. – The way it looks now, there is a great danger that this situation could become long-term. We have spoken to several small power producers who are considering selling. Not because they want to, but because they see that it is the only way out, he says. news has previously written about foreign pension funds with a great appetite for Norwegian small power plants. – I assume that the banks are flexible in temporary crisis situations like this, and that this will reduce the need to sell, says the managing director of Forte Vannkraft, Rein Husebø (see quote box for additional answers). Bergens Tidende wrote on Wednesday about a power line between north and south (Ørskog-Fardal) which only uses 10 percent of its capacity, because it was built to provide power flow the other way (north). – If this can be controlled differently, it can have a faster effect than new lines, says Husebø. – The prices in the north do not facilitate more power production Rein Husebø, director of Forte vasskraft – Greater transmission capacity between north and south will help, but it takes a very long time to build up such capacity, and the problem for the landowner-owned works is more acute and needed solution faster. I assume that the banks are flexible in temporary crisis situations like this, and that this will reduce the need to sell. Knut Kroepelien, director of Energi Noreg – Reinforcements in the power grid must be done in a way that is profitable for society over time, i.e. not based on extreme prices in a limited period. In any case, it will take several years before new lines can be in place. At the same time, there is a great need for better capacity in the network in view of electrification and new industry in several places in the country. Here, the development and not least the license processing in NVE must go much faster than today. Knut Lockert, head of District Energy – There can be no doubt that Statnett is doing the right thing by reducing the bottlenecks between north and south. The fact that some politicians want a development with still large price differences does not change this. It is also the case that the prices we are looking at in the north do not facilitate more power production, as the region wishes. – The benefits of equalizing the differences are greater In February, Statnett said that they were “reassessing the position” that it is not socially rational to reduce the price differences between the north and south of the country. “We see that the profitability of smoothing out the differences is greater than what we have previously assumed,” said Statnett director Gunnar G. Løvås. In a written question to Oil and Energy Minister Terje Aasland, Ola Elvestuen (V) asks whether the government has a professional basis for instructing Statnett to “put aside the plans to improve transmission capacity”. The Minister has not yet answered the question from Elvestuen. The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy wrote to news that “the advantages and disadvantages of new pipeline projects must be assessed concretely and individually”. Bjordal, Vindafjord: Behind the independent small power plants stand farmers and landowners who traditionally do not have the financial muscle to handle large fluctuations in price. Photo: Roy Mangersnes / Samfoto – This is a sad development In total, there are over 300 independent small power plants in the price range NO3 and NO4 (Mid-Norway and Northern Norway). Behind these are about 1,000 farmers and landowners. – With only a couple of øre per kilowatt-hour over a long period of time, there is no power plant that can make money, says Leif Lia, who is a “hydropower professor” at NTNU. He points out that private owners of small power plants “are extra special as they often only have one power plant and rarely have a bag of risk capital from another business”. He adds: – It is a sad development if the political goal was to create a strong district industry with local ownership. This is how the power market has changedNorway is part of a power market that is connected to Sweden, Denmark, Great Britain, Germany, Poland, Russia, the Netherlands and the Baltic countries with cables. A high-voltage power line transmits power from Sør-Trøndelag to Jämtland in Sweden for the first time. Since then, several lines have been built to Sweden and Finland. The submarine cables Skagerrak 1 and 2 were installed in the summer of 1976 and 1977. The transmission capacity was 500 megawatts. Since then, Norway has received two new cables to Denmark in 1993 and 2014. The power market was opened up with the Energy Act. Prices for power were to be governed by supply and demand. Sweden and Norway formed a joint power exchange, which Finland and Denmark later joined. The Nordned cable between Norway and the Netherlands will open in April 2008. The capacity is 700 megawatts. The fourth cable, Skagerrak 4, opened between Kristiansand and Tjele in Denmark at the turn of the year. Then the transmission capacity between the countries increased from 1,000 to 1,700 megawatts. The Solberg government decides to build a cable to Germany and Great Britain, each of 1400 megawatts. In December, trial operation of Nordlink, which runs between southern Norway and Germany, began. Since March 2021, the cable has been in normal operation. The capacity is 1400 megawatts. The cable between Suldal in Rogaland and Newcastle in the UK opened in October 2021. The transmission capacity is 1400 megawatts. view more
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Low electricity prices take the brunt of small power plants – news Vestland
