Between 19:00 and 20:00 today (Friday), the electricity price in “the most notorious price area” (NO2) will touch NOK 7 per kilowatt hour. It is a new record. The 7s have never been seen before. NO2 includes Agder, Rogaland, parts of Vestland and parts of Vestfold and Telemark. New figures from NVE show that the degree of filling in the same area was 50.2 per cent at the end of week 33. That is 29 percentage points below what is normal at this time of year (79.2 per cent). In a written question to the Ministry of Oil and Energy, the Progress Party wants to know how much this difference goes beyond power production. The explanation is that lower pressure in the reservoirs and reduced drop height to the turbines result in less efficient power production. In the answer, the ministry refers to calculations from NVE, which say that 1.1 terawatt-hours (TWh) of energy in NO2 is lost when the degree of filling is 30 percentage points lower than normal. This corresponds to the annual consumption of around 70,000 single-family homes, and represents a value of around NOK 5 billion at today’s power prices. For the whole of Norway, the loss is about three times as high. NVE has calculated that Norway loses 3 terawatt-hours (TWh) in power production when the degree of filling is 30 percentage points lower than normal. Photo: Ørn E. Borgen / NTB – Clean energy goes to play Energy policy spokesperson in the Frp, Marius Arion Nilsen, describes the loss as “shocking”. – This is clean energy that goes into play as a consequence of a power market out of control, and yet another argument for limiting power exports, he says to news. The corresponding signal comes from SV and Raudt. Sofie Marhaug (R): – This shows the problem of making short-term profit the only governing principle in energy policy. The result is a record low level in the magazines, with all the negative consequences that has. Lars Haltbrekken (SV): – This is an argument for increasing the filling rate. We expect the government to come up with proposals for the Storting that will ensure that we do not lose such large amounts of power. Last year, new tax rules (“cash flow tax”) were introduced to stimulate more hydropower development. An overview in Klassekampen shows that the response has been slow to come. In total, only four new applications have been received as a result of the change. In total, the project will generate new power production of 0.4 terawatt-hours. – Slowing down exports weakens security of supply While Northern Norway has the highest filling rate in 20 years, the power producers in the south were put under observation in July. Høgre’s spokesperson for energy policy, Nikolai Astrup, says the NVE calculation corresponds to the oldest natural laws in the world, and should not surprise anyone. – It is completely in line with the laws of physics that lower pressure and reduced drop height result in less efficient power production, he says. He warns that “general export restrictions can weaken the security of supply, because it can make it more difficult to import when we need it and because the producers can adapt their production to the restrictions”. The Regulatory Authority for Energy (RME), which falls under NVE, delivered its professional assessments on Monday about how much leeway Norway has to reduce power transmission abroad. They concluded that the EEA Agreement only opens up restrictions when special considerations dictate it. High electricity prices were not a good enough reason, they considered. On the same day, the system operators in Sweden, Denmark and Finland expressed that they were “deeply concerned” about the signals in the Norwegian debate about intervening in the electricity market. In a joint press release, they underlined the “importance of open borders”. In the water reservoirs in the south, the amount of water in the reservoirs is lower than it has been in 20 years. This in turn leads to record high electricity prices. Here from Blåsjø in Agder. In the north, the reservoirs are overflowing. Nordkraft warns about traveling near rivers that flow in and out of the reservoirs and prices are historically low. In week 30 with a weekly price of 2 øre/kWh. Full water reservoir at Balvatn in Nordland. – Export restrictions will annoy our neighboring countries Political editor in Europower, Haakon Barstad, writes in a comment that restrictions on exports will weaken security of supply and “annoy our neighbours”. – In that perspective, the government’s signal about export regulation seems very poorly thought out. It seems that the most important intention was to send a message to frustrated Ap and Sp mayors that the government would like to do something, he writes. He concludes that the government must instead come up with solutions to slow down production (as opposed to exports). – The decisive thing now is that the government does not place limits on the exchange of power in Scandinavia or with other countries in Europe, says Ola Elvestuen (V). He adds: – The exchange cables improve security of supply in Norway at the same time as they contribute to Europe being able to more quickly replace the use of Russian gas. OVERFLOWING: At Storvannet in Håkvikdalen in Narvik, there is so much water that the reservoirs cannot take it all away. Here, people are warned against small streams that have turned into rivers. Frida Brembo
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Low pressure causes Norway to lose billions in power – news Vestland
