Norway Blocks All New Interconnectors Until 2029
Norway’s government will reject any new interconnector proposals before 2029 and introduce a fixed power price of NOK 400/MWh (EUR 34/MWh) for households to tackle price volatility, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store and Energy Minister Terje Aasland announced today.
This follows the collapse of Norway’s government this week over disagreements on EU energy directives. These events bring into focus the hundreds of cables transporting electricity across borders in Europe and how they’re being transformed into political weapons.
Europe’s electricity system is the world’s largest interconnected grid linking nearly 600 million citizens. It embodies the spirit of solidarity in the European Union and sharing resources with your neighbors. However, the rise of political parties with inward-looking policies is disrupting that harmony.
The debate in Norway has been brewing for some years, with soaring prices in north-west Europe stoking discontent. The nation was Europe’s third biggest electricity exporter last year and sales to the UK and other markets have caused price spikes, particularly in the south of the country. Higher bills for Norwegians, make it a political issue. Norway’s citizens are due to go to the polls in September.
Whether or not to replace aging HVDC cables in Norway - such as the 500MW Skagerrak 1&2 - that are approaching the end of their operating lives “has become a huge political debate and a very populistic debate,” said Lars Ove Skorpen, director of Power and Renewable Energy at Pareto Securities in Oslo.
Norwegian Premier Store does say he wants to work with other Nordic countries to address fluctuations and instability in the power market. “If we lift our gaze and look forward to what is happening around the North Sea, there is a strong emphasis on renewable power from all countries,” he said. “But then every country has to sit down and consider what is their share of such a possibility and there is no one who is going to do something that is not in their interests.”
Alexander Esser, head of the Nordic region at Aurora Energy Research says “There are clear European benefits of interconnectors, but governments think differently about it and want to protect their markets.”
