Net on case These are comments written by Nettavisen’s editor-in-chief.
Electricity prices that have been above eight kroner per kilowatt hour are not due to “the market” and “liberalization”, but public and political governance that has gone completely wrong.
Red politician Boye Ullmann is so convinced that the market is to blame for everything that hurts, that he forgets that almost 100% of Norwegian power production is owned by the state and municipalities, and transported to consumers via Statnett.
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The Communists use the electricity protests to sell completely unrealistic solutions
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Perhaps Stavrum’s wet dream that the “market” will solve the electricity crisis has failed?
The background for the discussion is disagreement in the Facebook group «We who demand cheaper electricity»Against an attempt by No to the EU, the Communist Party
Red and some parts of the trade union movement to derail the 600,000 from concentrating on cheaper electricity, to discuss the EEA agreement and power cables – ie utopian solutions for which there is no majority in the Storting.
Electricity prices a political choice
In Norway, both production, distribution and sale of power are politically controlled. It is not evil capitalists who hide profits in their own pockets, but power municipalities and the state.
For anyone who really wants to understand what has created the high prices is recommended the blog of Sverre Aam – now special adviser, previously for a number of years top manager in Sintef Energi AS.
Read it here: What in the world is happening to the power market?
In short, the country’s perhaps the foremost expert in the field describes how a previously sensible political choice to link Norwegian hydropower with European coal power, gas power and nuclear power, has become a nightmare for Norwegian consumers.
– For the hydropower country Norway, it was very beneficial to develop power exchange with Europe. Norway had good access to power in that the hydropower reservoirs could easily and quickly increase their production. Furthermore, we could easily run the hydropower stations down and buy power from the EU to store the purchase in our hydropower reservoirs, writes Aam.
– Then we could buy power at night and on weekends for cheap money and sell back during the day on weekdays at a high price. Buy cheap and sell expensive – was a good store, writes Aam.
Gas prices have gone crazy
Previously, Europe produced stably, while Norway could turn our power production up and down.
Europe has now decided to phase out stable production and become dependent on wind and sun. To all intents and purposes, gas prices have skyrocketed, so that electric power from gas now costs 300-330 øre to produce per kilowatt hour.
Conclusion: What was smart in the past is still very profitable for the state and municipalities, but expensive for Norwegian consumers now.
And to answer Rødt politician Boye Ullmann’s question, the answer is no – I have no dream that the market will settle.
I do not perceive the power supply to Norwegian homes as particularly well suited for a market.
But that does not mean that I want even more public mismanagement and bad political solutions!
The state earns grossly, ordinary people get burned
As Sintef adviser Sverre Aam correctly points out, the Norwegian state earns a lot from the sale of expensive gas to Europe, Norwegian power producers too well paid for written-down hydropower plants, while ordinary people have to pay the price.
– The electricity price represents in principle a large tax increase on which no one has gone to the polls, writes Aam.
And it can be long-lasting: – If gas prices do not fall again until the summer and remain at a reasonable level, it can unfortunately be several years of frustrated citizens in Norway and the EU, he concludes, pointing out that the crisis package for electricity is temporary, and that it may not provide adequate compensation to citizens.
The latter is a main point. Norway benefits grossly from high gas prices and high electricity prices, but politicians cannot pass the bill on to Norwegian consumers. The simplest solution is a permanent solution where a maximum price of, for example, 35 øre is set – possibly by the state compensating everything above.
No to Rødt’s “extra tax” on electricity
Three parties, as well as the protest list from Alta, support a form of maximum price for electricity:
- Both the Christian People’s Party, Red, Patient Focus and the Progress Party voted for a maximum of 50 øre per kilowatt hour – all the other parties voted against.
- Red primarily wants 35 øre, but only up to 2,000 kilowatt hours. For ordinary people who spend more, they only offer 50 percent of prices over 70 øre up to 5,000 kilowatt hours, and zero support above.
Rødt’s primary proposal is in fact worse than the government’s too many electricity users who use more than 2,000 kilowatt hours a month in the winter, and the proposal then also received only Rødt’s votes. Then the party chose to support the other parties’ proposal for a maximum price of 50 øre per kilowatt hour.
Such a two-step scheme that Rødt primarily wants, in practice means an extra tax for many electricity users in that they have to take the bill for greedy public power actors, and poor political governance.
General strike for lower electricity prices
Red politician Boye Ullmann is undoubtedly involved in the electricity price uprising, and calls for a massive protest on 15 February, at the same time as he keeps the possibility open for a general strike.
It is good that the trade union movement is committed to cheaper electricity for ordinary people, but not if they want to trump through a top-price system that discriminates against people who live in poorly insulated houses and use far more than 2,000 kilowatt hours in the winter months.
This is not about a left-wing habitual thinking where different groups of power consumers are set against each other, but about all power consumers. That is why well over 600,000 have joined the electricity protest group.
Although Rødt always wants to take money from people with medium and high incomes, the electricity price crisis revolves around a case where the state and municipalities are on one side – and the consumer on the other.
The losers are ordinary people and companies, and the requirement must be that they are compensated for all abnormally high electricity prices that may persist for several years to come.
The market is ill-suited to producing monopoly services such as electricity and water, but it does not get any better from public monopolies making a gross profit and sending the bill to consumers.
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No to offshore wind and export cables before they start caring about Norwegian consumers
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