Surge in electricity prices

PowerlinePowerline .Photo: pixabay.com

Power prices are at their highest level in 13 months, and are expected to stay high throughout the spring. Unusually cold weather is to blame.

 

A kilowattime now costs 0.402 kroner in southern Norway and 0.432 kroner in central and northern Norway. This is more than double the price in 2016,and an increase of between 50 and 83% over last year,according to figures Nettavisen newspaper has
collected from the ‘NordPool’ power exchange.

Experts blame the weather

‘’In the short term, cold weather sends prices up. At the same time, there has actually been a little less snow than usual at this time of year. This suggests that prices will
remain more expensive than usual in the spring,” said senior analyst, Olav Johan Botnen, in ‘Wattsight’.

Communications Director, Stina Johansen of ‘NordPool’ also pointed to the cold.

“We see that the weather plays a major role in the Norwegian market. When the cold comes, the demand for electricity increases, and then prices increase’’, she told Nettavisen.

The Meteorological Institute confirmed that it is uncommonly cold presently, and at the same time said that there are no signs of weather improvements among forecasts.

On Monday morning, Statistics Norway published figures for the average electricity prices for Norwegian households last year. They showed that the average price (excluding taxes and grid rent) was 201.4 per kWh in 2017. The total electricity price for households,including fees and grid rent, was on average 96.5 øre per kilowattime.
That was 5.1% higher than in 2016.

 

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today

1 Comment on "Surge in electricity prices"

  1. Cold weather is overstated. Its winter in Norway, not unusually cold. The reason is electricity interconnectors built in the recent years enabling more hydropower eksports which lowers domestic water reservoirs and increased import of costly electricity prices from fossil fuel plants in Europe made worse nye EU Emissions allowances.

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