Close the foreign cables – The Nation
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Until spring 2021, we had a total of 15 cables, to Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Russia and the Netherlands. With the opening of the Nordlink cables to Germany in May 2021 and the North Sea Link to England a few months later, successive demand shocks hit the Norwegian power market.
The effect on the electricity price was immediate and very strong. When Nordlink opened, the electricity price in Oslo doubled from June to September 2021, from 55 øre to 110 øre/kWh. When the North Sea Link came into operation in the autumn of 2021, it was a new price doubling.
From November 2021 to January 2022, electricity prices in Oslo rose from 110 øre to 220 øre/kWh.
It is which country and mark to which the export goes, which has the most to do with the electricity price, not the amount of power that is sent out. The highest are located in England and Germany, and it is no coincidence that the last cables should go where you get the best pay.
When Norwegian private customers or businesses have to buy power to meet their own needs, they have to pay the same as if the power producer sold to the highest bidder in the German or British market.
For that reason, it is the opening of the last two foreign cables, Nordlink and North Sea Link, which are the reasons for the higher Norwegian electricity prices from the summer of 2021 until today.
If this picture is to change, it must be connected to power export at a low level of filling in the water reservoirs, stopping the electrification of the shelf with power from land and not building the Northconnect cable to Scotland.
These are short-term measures, more comprehensive measures to use safeguards in EEA agreements to regulate power exports, which are current agreements with Germany and the UK, to ensure that Norwegian authorities have full political control with the Energy Regulatory Authority. in Norway’s watercourses and energy directorate.
This was the backdrop when the war in Ukraine started on February 24, 2022. During the entire period from June 2021 to January 2022, there were discussions and debates about the expensive electricity. Støre did not want to listen, because for him the important thing was to be “kind” to the EU, and not to provoke.
We in Norway meant, and have never meant anything to Støre, his heart lies in Europe and the EU. “We are following someone closely” we heard repeatedly throughout last winter and long beyond the year 2022, in addition to this Støre quote: “Norwegian economy is doing so well that we have to endure bankruptcies”. Who “we”? You can’t be more cynical!
The war in Ukraine led to increased gas prices and greater demand for electric power. Then Northpol got customers who were willing to pay to buy the electricity “our” at a much higher price than the price that was in force in January 2022.
Through the cables, which were opened in 2021, electricity went to Germany and England at prices that no one in Norway could afford to pay. But then we had to pay that price, too! The pressure on the government eventually became so great that they had to come up with an electricity subsidy scheme which is in reality an electricity tax.
As long as the government does not cover 100% of the excess, we have got a new tax. In addition, we pay 70 øre, while we should actually have paid 50 øre/kWh or less if the cables to Europe had been closed!!
Jonas Gahr Støre acts as EU ambassador to Norway, not as Prime Minister of Norway! It lies beneath everything he has said and done throughout 2022!
Is this okay for Sp?