Electricity prices may remain high until spring

Powerlines covered in snow and ice.

Electricity prices may remain high until spring

Drought, rainfall and expensive coal and gas have all contributed to high electricity prices.

 

The market shows few signs of decline in the short term.

We are in the part of the year during which we spend the most on electricity, and many have noticed that prices have risen sharply recently. On Tuesday, a kilowatt-hour cost 52.7 øre wrote Dagbladet newspaper.

Based on Nasdaq’s monthly contracts, the market expects the price to remain at the same level in the future said information manager, Aslak Øverås of Energy Norway to Dinside.no. The contracts for January to March are all at around 50 øre per kilowatt-hour, which indicates that electricity will remain expensive until the spring.

In recent years, the prices of electricity in winter have been relatively low and we have to look back to 2010 or 2011 to find the same price level as we have this winter. The weather this year has contributed to the high prices, with great fluctuations from dry summer to a record wet harvest. In addition, higher prices for coal, gas and CO2 emission caps have pushed European electricity prices upwards.

In the third quarter of this year, production and exports were lower than in the same period last year, and for a few weeks, Norway were net importers of electricity.

“This means that power producers had saved water for the winter,” explained Øverås, adding that the rain this autumn had filled up the water reservoirs to closer to the norm for the season.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today