Electricity price shock in South-West Norway tomorrow

Less than 3 hours ago

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Electricity prices in South-West Norway reach record high levels on Thursday, shows the overview from electricity exchange Nord Pool.

This is how the daily price of electricity will be in the various price areas on Thursday:

• Southwest Norway (NO2): NOK 4.22 per kilowatt hour
• Eastern Norway (NO1) and parts of Western Norway (NO5): NOK 2.04 per kilowatt hour
• Central Norway (NO3) and Northern Norway (NO4): approximately 2 øre per kilowatt hour

The last time electricity was at similar levels was 21 December last year, when the price in Eastern Norway was NOK 3.95 per kilowatt hour.

The prices in the overview above do not include taxes, internet rent and any surcharges from the electricity company.

Volue analyst Tor Reier Lilleholt explains the jump in electricity prices, among other things, by the fact that things are happening in Europe.

– The Nord Stream cable is in focus, and in addition, Italy has scaled back its gas supply from Russia today, says Lilleholt to E24.

– That is what drives prices high in Europe.

Earlier this week, the Russian gas company Gazprom announced that another turbine connected to Nord Stream would be closed from Wednesday. This leads to Russia will only deliver 33 million cubic meters of gas per daywhich is 20 percent of the maximum capacity of the pipeline.

Historically low degree of filling

Lilleholt adds that the power producers in southern Norway have been told to save on the water in the reservoirs, in order to raise the prices to a level seen in Europe, to avoid Europe having to buy the power.

– If we had had more water in the reservoirs, we would not have been anywhere near these prices, says Lilleholt.

Last week, the level of filling in the water reservoirs in South-West Norway was 48.3 per cent. It is the lowest that has been measured in week 29 in the last 20 years.

Overall for the country, the occupancy rate was 65.1 per cent, while the median level over the past 20 years has been 73.3 per cent in the same week.

This is shown by the fresh water reservoir statistics from NVE, which arrived on Wednesday afternoon.

– Think prices will rise drastically

– What is happening on a geopolitical level with gas in Europe is the main reason, it is also an important issue that we have so little water in the reservoirs and are forced to save what we have. Then we get a big price consequence for southern Norway, which has a direct connection to Europe, says Lilleholt.

He also brings a cold shower to those in Eastern and Western Norway who now pay less than half the price of what they do in the southwest.

– I think these prices will rise drastically in the coming weeks.

Electricity prices have been far above normal in the past year, but normally all price areas in southern Norway have had around the same high prices. This changed dramatically earlier this summer when price area NO2, which is referred to as South-West Norway, rose sharply due to the unrest surrounding low fill rates and geopolitical events.