– This is completely hopeless. For one hour tonight, electricity prices will be 4 euros per kilowatt hour, says Marek Lemsalu in Tallinn, Estonia. Figures from NordPool, the Nordic exchange for trading in electrical energy, show that the spot price of electricity will be very high in the Baltic countries today, Wednesday. Between 17 and 18, it will be as much as NOK 40 in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. Marek Lemsalu. Photo: Privat This means that a ten-minute shower in this period will cost just under NOK 250. On Wednesday, electricity prices in Norway set new records, but Norway is still some way below Estonia. In Tromsø, the spot price for a kilowatt hour in the same period will be 1.41 øre, excluding VAT, network rent and fees. Thus, the price of a ten-minute shower will be just under one kroner. – It’s absolutely wild, says power analyst at Volue Insight, Tor Reier Lilleholt. NOK 40 is the price ceiling set on the NordPool exchange. According to Lilleholt, it is set so high to limit that the market takes off completely. Tor Reier Lilleholt, head of analysis at Value Insight. Photo: Asbjørn Odd Berge / news – It should be so high that there should be almost no need to use it. When this is achieved, the ceiling must be raised further, says Lilleholt. Not enough electricity production The ceiling is now being increased to NOK 50 per kilowatt hour. – Not that it would help in this situation. In practice, there is not enough electricity production available in the Baltic countries now, says CEO of Lyse produktion, Sindre Ims. It is the power producers who balance the market. Those who register that they will use electricity use electricity regardless of the price they have to pay. If there is not enough electricity production, the price will hit the ceiling. According to Ims, one of the reasons for the high electricity price in the Baltic countries is that between 17 and 18 Wednesday there will be maintenance at some power plants. – In the specific hours, there is also little wind, so it contributes almost nothing. There was not enough production available. And then you get the price of 4,000 øre, he says. Gets power support in Estonia Marek Lemsalu, with a past in the Norwegian elite series for Bryne and Start, today runs his own company in the Estonian capital Tallinn. He says the government informed on Tuesday that an electricity subsidy would also be introduced in Estonia. Marek Lemsalu, here from his time in Bryne between 2002 and 2005, in a duel with Roar Strand. Lemsalu, who lives in Tallinn, must pay NOK 40 per kilowatt hour between 17 and 18 on Wednesday. For Roar Strand in Trondheim, it is 50 øre for the spot price in the same period. Photo: Kallestad, Gorm / SCANPIX – There will be some kind of support that will apply from 1 October to 31 March. It will ensure that the state pays for electricity that exceeds a certain amount, says Lemsalu. It is so hot on Wednesday that Lemsalu believes the high electricity price will not be a major problem. – The entire internet here is actually filled with messages from people who say that everyone must switch off the electricity between 5 and 6pm today. It is not good. This summer it has been the case that if you have not used your house, you have still received the same electricity bill as in winter last year. I don’t understand how that is possible, he says. In Tromsø, electricity costs 1.43 øre per kilowatt hour (without VAT, internet rent and taxes). Photo: Marianne Løvland/Scanpix Could have the same situation in Norway Both Ims i Lyse and power analyst Lilleholt believe there is a theoretical possibility that we can see these prices in Norway as well. Ims points out that we are, however, far from such a situation in Norway now. – It is not inconceivable that this happens if very large parts of the production equipment are unavailable for a period of time. But that is not realistic, he says. – But if I had asked you in August 2020 if it was likely that electricity prices would be over six kroner per kilowatt hour in 2022, what would you have answered then? – Then I would probably have said that it was extremely unlikely. I didn’t see this coming, he says. – What do you think about the prices we see in Norway and in Europe now? – The prices are catastrophic. Both for Norway, Europe and society as a whole. But we in Norway at least pay for ourselves with good support schemes. In a European context, it is not us who suffer, he says.
ttn-69
New electricity price record in Norway – but here the price is almost 3,000 times higher – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
