Pay twice as much for electricity – Germany gets the second highest price ever – E24
Expensive with electricity in Norway? On Tuesday, Britons have to pay three kroner per kilowatt hour, 22 times more than electricity customers in Central Norway.
The coal-fired power plants run at full capacity in Germany, yet they pay twice as much electricity price as Norwegians.
On Monday, many Norwegian electricity customers received a sharp jump in the price of electricity.
One kilowatt hour costs an average of 1.24 kroner in large parts of southern Norway on Monday, according to the power exchange Nord Pool. The price does not include grid rent, fees and other surcharges from the electricity companies.
It was the highest average price since 19 October when one kilowatt hour on average cost a record 1.43 kroner.
It is expensive with electricity in Norway during the day, but on the continent the situation has reached yet.
On Tuesday, customers in the UK must have more than 3.1 kroner per kilowatt hour.
At the same time, the price in Germany is 2.4 kroner per kilowatt hour, while in Copenhagen you have to pay 1.5 kroner per kilowatt hour, according to Nord Pool. (The electricity price is here bergenet for the following day, ie Tuesday)
In several places in Europe, the price of electricity is twice as high as in southern Norway. The map shows the electricity price in euros per megawatt hour.
Gas-dependent UK is struggling the most
– There are several reasons for this. Colder weather is expected both on the continent and in the UK, and then the consumption of electricity will increase, says Eirik Torhaug, senior analyst at the analysis company Refinitiv.
– In addition, there will be some wind tomorrow, so it will be a double effect with high demand and low supply, he says.
A third factor is extremely high gas prices. This explains, among other things, why the UK is at the top of Europe.
– The UK is still very dependent on gas power, even though they have installed a lot of renewables in the last few years, says Torhaug.
Second highest price ever
On Tuesday, Germany will have its second highest electricity price ever, at a level twice as high as southern Norway.
– The record was set earlier this year with an average price of three kroner per kilowatt hour, says Katinka Bogaard, senior analyst at Volue Insight.
She also points to a bit of wind on the continent as one of the reasons for sky-high electricity prices.
– Tomorrow there will be a third less wind power than usual. Germany already runs the majority of its power plants that run on coal and gas, so it is limited what resources you have left to pick up to cover the rising consumption when the weather now gets colder, says Bogaard.
The difference is large between Central and Northern Norway, where the price tomorrow will be 14 øre on average, and the rest of Europe.
– Northern Norway has such cheap electricity because they are «trapped» in the sense that they do not have sufficient transmission capacity between themselves and the rest of Norway, at the same time as they have a large surplus of renewable energy.
– The cheap electricity is simply trapped in the north, says Bogaard.
