– So, we need permanent jobs. We need people to open the kindergarten again and keep the school running. A village without a nursery school and school is not as good a village as when that offer is there. Wenche Havrevoll lives on Nesflaten in Suldal municipality. A village that once had 80 employees in the Røldal-Suldal Kraft power plant, a kindergarten and a primary and secondary school. Overview of Nesflaten. In front is the housing estate that was built for the power plant in the 60s. In connection with the power development in the 60s, a housing estate called Kilane was also built on Nesflaten. It consists of atrium houses with flat roofs. These were designed by Geir Grung. Wenche Havrevoll runs a shop on the farm where she lives. With the help of long opening hours, fairs, lectures and deliveries to other stores, she gets things going. A cold winter’s day on the Nesflaten. The power lines are visible on the Nesflaten. Today, there are 30 employees left in the power plant, and no kindergarten or secondary school. But now Wenche Havrevoll hopes that the village with around 200 residents will again get a boost. Lyse Kraft has applied to NVE for a license to upgrade and expand the power plants for close to NOK 8 billion. What will Lyse Kraft spend almost 8 billion on? They will upgrade the power plants in Røldal-Suldal Kraft, located in Suldal and Ullensvang municipalities. Five new power plants will be built, of which three are pumped-pump power plants. Around 30 kilometers of new tunnels will also be built. From before, there are nine power plants – all will be inside the mountain. It will be done with modest new nature interventions. No more water will be dammed than today, but there will be some new roads. Lyse Kraft does this because the power market is undergoing major changes. The old hydropower plants are designed to produce electricity steadily. Hydropower will now play alongside solar and wind power. When there is a surplus of solar and wind power, the hydropower plants are stopped. If the electricity price is low enough, water is pumped back into the reservoirs so that hydropower works almost like a battery. When more of the need for electricity is to be covered by weather-dependent power production, hydropower will need a larger engine or power than today for the periods when there is no wind and it is dark and cold. Without this, prices will skyrocket. Therefore, increasing power is one of the most important things when power plants are to be upgraded and modernized. When the upgrade and expansion of Røldal-Suldal Kraft is finished, the effect will be doubled from today. Some more electricity will also be produced. Lyse has carried out a corresponding upgrade and expansion at the facility in Lysebotn in Rogaland. Source: Lyse Kraft And it is what is left afterwards that is most important. – There is bound to be more people in work when there are more power plants. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, says Havrevoll. The administration building of Røldal-Suldal Kraft on Nesflaten is known colloquially as the ufo. It was also designed by Geir Grung in the 60s. The round building used to house the operations center. Parts of the operations center today function as a meeting room with a view of Suldalsvatnet. The old operations center in Røldal-Suldal Kraft is a circular room that is currently functioning as a storage room and some office space while the building is being renovated. The measuring instruments on the wall are still there, although the operation of the power plants is now controlled from another location. At an information meeting, the residents were promised somewhere between five and ten new permanent jobs by Lyse Kraft. Mayor Mads Drange noticed it. But after the previous billion-dollar investment, when the England cable facility was built in the municipality, they were left with little concrete beyond property tax. – We have no illusions that we will get something for free if we don’t fight for it. Major investments ahead It is not just Suldal that faces major investments in power plants. Statkraft recently said that it plans to invest close to NOK 50 billion in upgrading and expanding its facilities. Several companies are working on similar plans without NVE having an overview of how much is involved. But they have received signals from the industry that they are working on various projects, according to press officer Kristine Ugstad. In the National Association for Hydropower Municipalities (LVK), leader Jon Rolf Næss believes that meeting the energy companies can be a challenge for district municipalities. Leader of the National Association of Hydropower Municipalities Jon Rolf Næss Photo: Svein Sundsdal / news – They become like a mosquito in relation to the large professional players who are responsible for the development and upgrades of green energy in Norway. The municipalities do not have the negotiating skills that these actors have. LVK has lawyers who help the municipalities. But there are no government schemes that ensure that municipalities are left with something when old power plants are to be upgraded. – Power upgrades do not give the municipalities anything. If government schemes are not put in place, the result could be that the municipalities that make nature available say no to the developments or upgrades, says Næss. State Secretary Elisabeth Sæther in the Ministry of Energy answers this: – The application for upgrading and expansion in Røldal-Suldal is being processed by NVE. The Ministry of Energy cannot comment on the outcome of this specific case, not even when it comes to income for the municipalities. The end station for the England cable in Kvildal in Suldal. The municipality received NOK 23 million in property tax last year for the facility. Photo: Magnus Stokka / news The England cable – a lesson Suldal is the host municipality for the controversial England cable. A facility that cost many billions to build and takes up 44,000 square meters of land from the municipality. Less than NOK 60 million went to local businesses during the construction period. After it was finished, the municipality is left with one workplace, a rest area, a boat slip and waste heat that is not being used. – We were not good at demanding anything again. I think that is a lesson for what we are in now. Mayor of Suldal, Mads Drange (Ap) Photo: Lars Tore Endresen / news – But you already get income through property tax from power plants and licensed power. Can’t you use this money to take care of what you need yourself? – It’s actually not everything money can buy. And we as a municipality cannot spend money and “create” jobs. I would happily trade the property tax for the English cable for five to ten permanent jobs. news has contacted former mayors and Statnett to find out what was involved in the negotiations before the construction of the England cable. – We experienced that we had a good dialogue with the municipality throughout the process and they were positive about our plans, says communications advisor at Statnett Marianne Veggeberg. In the negotiations between Lyse Kraft and the host municipalities Suldal and Ullensvang, Suldal wants workplaces, housing, roads and local environmental measures to say yes. – Many of the things there will be able to remain after the construction period. Permanent jobs that we know the municipalities are interested in, we will facilitate, says CEO of Lyse Kraft Bjørn Honningsvåg. Housing shortage on Nesflaten On Nesflaten, Renate Hagen, like Wenche Havrevoll, hopes that there will be more activity in the village. For that, new homes are also needed, because there is a housing shortage despite fewer children and young people. Renate Hagen is 20 years old and wants to live somewhere in Suldal with a not too long distance to work and the possibility of her own home. Photo: Åse Karin Hansen / news – I live at home with my parents on Nesflaten. There is no housing available. Every morning and afternoon she spends 40 minutes driving to work as an apprentice child and youth worker. When she has obtained her diploma, she wants to move, but she wants to return to Nesflaten. – I hope that there will be more of us at Nesflaten, because it is a good place to live. Now it’s just me and two others my age here. At the Energihotellet in the same location, Olav Lindseth is optimistic about the future. He and his family took over the former clerk’s fair for Røldal-Suldal Kraft in 2007 to run a hotel. Olav Lindseth owns the Energihotellet together with his wife Gunhild Moe Lindseth and the rest of the family. The old clerk’s fair for Røldal-Suldal Kraft was sold and is now operated as the Energihotellet. The Energihotellet has a fireplace with real gold. It is original from the 60s. The interior has been taken care of since it was a clerk’s fair. The hotel currently has between eight and eleven full-time employees. Now the number of rooms has more than doubled, and the number of man-years is somewhere between eight and eleven. – Nothing comes by itself. You have to stand your ground, but I think the power development will mean a lot for Suldal and Øvre Suldal. – We also see that there is increasing interest in tourism linked to hydropower. We probably expect to double the number of man-years if we manage to take part in the activity that we expect to come. One year, Suldal municipality distributed millions in electricity subsidies to permanent residents in the municipality. One family received NOK 14,000. You can read about that here.
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– District municipalities become like a mosquito for developers – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
