MANAGER
In the midst of a time of destiny for Europe, the Center Party will stifle power cooperation. It is unwise and unsympathetic.
MUST GET NO: The Center Party’s proposal to restrict power exports must be rejected. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB
sea view
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Manager: This is an editorial from Dagbladet, and expresses the newspaper’s views. Dagbladet’s political editor is responsible for the editorial.
Published
Friday, July 08, 2022 – 13:55
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The Center Party’s parliamentary group demands a halt to electricity exports. Of course, it is not kiosk – suffocating news that the Center Party wants it, but it is still a bad idea. Not least, it adds another stone to the burden of an already pressured government.
The background is that there is less water in the reservoirs than usual, and a fear that electricity prices will remain high and increase throughout the winter.
That’s why power is so expensive
The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) is responsible for monitoring the power situation in Norway. They can tell us that the degree of filling in Norwegian reservoirs is around 60 percent. The median value over the last twenty years has been close to 68 percent.
It creates a fear so that the power situation can be strained later this year, and into the new year. But the Center Party prescribes completely wrong medicine for the problem.
The power companies have a financial incentive to sell the power when prices are highest. This means that if the need for power is greater in the winter (as it is), then you will hold back hydropower throughout the rest of the year to have enough for colder times.
Forcing power producers to hold back more than they already do now will only lead to higher prices throughout the summer and perhaps through parts of the winter as well.
Power cooperation with the surrounding countries us is a good. It gives us better security of supply and utilization of our power.
If Norway today decides to restrict power exports, other countries may not want to export electricity to us if we have a shortage in the future.
Therefore, the Center Party’s proposal is short-sighted. Not least, it is selfish.
Europe is facing a period of fate in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Gas prices, and thus also electricity prices, have skyrocketed over the past year.
We must agree on this. The Center Party’s proposal is a recipe for division and hard fronts in Europe. Government partner the Labor Party must say a beautiful no to that.
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