– There is no nice message to give at Christmas. That’s what Frode Dorp in the online company Linea says. They are staying at Helgeland in Nordland. From 1 January, customers must expect an increase in online rent of 27 per cent. – There has been a sharp rise in prices in society and an increase in interest rates, he says. In addition, the income limits for online companies have increased. The income framework determines how much the online company can demand payment from its customers. The idea behind such a solution is that the authorities should be able to check that prices do not become too high. For next year, the framework has been increased by NOK 9 billion. Statnett takes most of the bill, but Norwegian electricity customers still have to pay a total of NOK 2 billion more in network rent to cover the increased income limit. And it is the network company itself that decides how much we will pay in network rent, explains senior advisor Velaug Amalie Mook in NVE to news. But the companies cannot do everything they want. Øvre Forsland power plant will be operated by Helgeland Kraft. Their online company Linea set up internet rent by 27 per cent from the new year. Photo: Helgeland Kraft AS – RME checks that the income the network company collects through network rent is not higher than what the network company is allowed to charge from its customers, says Mook. For the online company Linea in Helgeland, the increase in the income framework means that they can collect NOK 94 million more than what they had initially planned. That is why they have now raised the prices. – As soon as there is a signal that we can lower the net rent, we will do so. We make an assessment four times a year on how we are doing in relation to the budget, says Dorp. A little further north of Helgeland, Arva is the network company. Here, too, they have informed the customers about an increase in online rent. Norway’s largest does not increase Increasing interest rates and more expensive materials are partly to blame. – In addition, we experience lower customer growth in our region than for the rest of the country, which means fewer people to distribute the costs to, says Hege Villumstad, section manager in customer service for news. But not everyone plans to increase. Elvia is Norway’s largest online company. They supply electricity to around 2 million people in Innlandet, Oslo and Viken. – Ongoing payment of bottleneck income to the network company means that we avoid setting up network rent, explains communications consultant Vegar Stokset. But not all the network companies will get a share of the bottleneck revenues in 2023. The Elvia network company is Norway’s largest and has around just under 1 million customers in the country. Photo: Elvia Record-high revenues But what are bottleneck revenues actually? When you transfer power from a cheap price area to an area with a higher price – for example from Northern Norway to Southern Norway, there is a difference in price. This also applies abroad, if Norway either imports or exports electricity. This price difference is what Statnett gets. In 2021, they burned NOK 5.3 billion that way. An honest attempt to explain the electricity prices as briefly and simply as possible. But after the power crisis in Europe this year, Statnett has had record high revenues. Until September this year, bottleneck revenues amounted to NOK 11.5 billion. At the same time, Statnett has a limit on how much they can earn. Therefore, the bottleneck revenues are returned to the network company, which in turn will reduce the network rent for consumers. In the past, these revenues have been transferred to the network company over a longer period. But in November the government made changes to how this money is to be distributed. The aim was for companies in areas with high electricity prices to avoid increasing network rent. But the network companies in the north do not get these revenues, says Dorp in Linea. – Statnett has now received a large bottleneck income that many of the network companies in the south received due to high prices. We in the north have not benefited from that, he says.
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Online rent is now increasing. Some say as much as 27 percent – news Nordland
