Information for Dagbladet: – New crisis measures around the corner

TRONDHEIM (Dagbladet): As Dagbladet wrote on Wednesday morning, the government has been working for a long time to adjust the electricity subsidy scheme for households.

On Wednesday afternoon, Oil and Energy Minister Terje Aasland (Ap) also confirmed to NRK that the government will change the scheme.

However, he did not tell how power support changes: Dagbladet is aware that the government will move from the average monthly price to the spot price per hour in the calculation.

Among other things, this eliminates situations where private customers are paid for using electricity at the end of the month, as was the case for many in December.

Two more measures

Forces in LO and within the government parties have argued for a long time that the electricity subsidy scheme for households should be adjusted.

Dagbladet is also aware of two further electricity measures now being considered in the government offices:

• Better regulation of the electricity companies. The Consumer Council has sounded the alarm several times and a clean-up here is referred to as “low-hanging” by several close to the process.
• Major system changes to reduce price contagion from the cables to the continent and Great Britain.

According to Dagbladet’s information, “everything” is on the table when it comes to measures to deal with the electricity crisis. It includes measures that before the current situation would have been “unthinkable”, as one source describes it.

Hadia Tajik, who sits on the energy and environment committee at the Storting, told Dagbladet on Friday that the current situation “is not liveable”.

– A scandal

Time pressure

The party leadership in both Ap and Sp is aware that there is considerable impatience among the party’s elected officials on Løvebakken.

This unrest is even greater at the grassroots in the parties.

Therefore, the aim has always been to get as many power measures in place in good time before the national meeting of Sp at the end of March – probably also before the county annual meetings come in a row in February.

Sounded the alarm at an internal meeting

Silenced uneasiness

Dagbladet has previously told that the aforementioned Terje Aasland sounded the alarm at the central board meeting of the Labor Party last week.

According to Dagbladet’s knowledge, Aasland’s handling of the electricity situation in recent weeks has helped to calm the mood in the Storting. There has long been a clear expectation that the Minister of Oil and Energy would come up with measures.

The first of these came today – and more measures are expected in the coming weeks.