1 in 3 liters of water is missing in southwestern Norway.
In the first half of December, Norwegian hydropower producers have tapped water at an abnormally high pace, from an already historically low level. High exports are much of the reason.
Also read: Sky-high electricity prices: Norway exports 17 times more than we import
A number of people in the industry that Nettavisen has spoken to recently have questioned whether what is going on is sustainable. Several have pointed out that if this continues, water will run out before the spring meltdown begins.
The industry website Europower put the focus this week on how little the authorities can do to prevent the need for electricity rationing.
Cut exports and bottling of reservoirs
New figures from NVE indicate that power producers have seen the problem: Electricity exports fell by 40 per cent last week, at the same time as wind power production increased:
Mild weather contributed to power consumption in Norway and the Nordic countries falling by 12 per cent. At the same time, wind power production increased in all the Nordic countries. In total, this contributed to Norwegian hydropower production declining by 17 per cent, and Norwegian net exports falling compared with the previous week, NVE writes in its weekly report.
Despite lower temperatures, and lower load on hydropower, the price of electricity in southern Norway rose by 10 øre, and touched the price record for electricity in one week.
The mild weather also contributed to a little more water flowing into the reservoirs than usual. All in all, this contributed to the water level taking a small step up from the historically low levels. Unfortunately, the effect was greatest in Central Norway, which already has a lot of confined power production.
The situation is still strained in the very important hydropower areas in the south and west of Norway. In southern Norway, which is by far the most important production area, there is 31 per cent less water than normal, and last week there was as much water there as there normally is at the end of February.
Exports are still at a high level
Although exports fell by 40 per cent last week, they are still at a historically high level.
During the last year, where it has been said that it has been a dry summer, Norway has net exported 18 TWh of electricity. It is only 6 percent less than the same period the year before – despite the fact that there was a record amount of water in Norwegian reservoirs at the time and that it literally flowed over many places.
And already on Thursday morning this week, Norway is set to export as much electricity as the whole of last week.
Also read: Expert with gloomy message: This is how electricity prices will be at Christmas
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