Norway Wants to Scrap EU Power Links amid Surging Prices
Norway’s ruling party and the opposition party leading in the polls ahead of next year’s election plan to campaign for cutting off an interconnector with Denmark and renegotiate electricity interconnections with the EU and the UK as Norwegian power prices have soared to multi-year highs
While not a part of the European Union, Norway is a key EU partner and is party to many EU single market initiatives, including in electricity interconnection.
But unlike most of the EU countries, Norway has abundant hydro resources and doesn’t rely on imported natural gas for power generation.
In fact, it is Western Europe’s biggest oil and gas producer.
Hydroelectric plants accounts for 90 percent of Norwegian power generation, while the remaining around 10 percent of the electricity supply in Norway comes from wind power.
So when EU power prices jump, as they did again in the past few weeks, they spillover into Norway, which exports electricity via these interconnectors.
Due to the recent spikes in Norwegian power prices, politicians in Norway are seeking to alleviate consumer concerns.
Many are critical of the interconnectors, saying that Norway should only export electricity only when it has made certain that its domestic power prices are low, the Financial Times reports.
The ruling left-leaning Labour party will campaign ahead of the September 2025 general election for cutting off interconnectors to Denmark in 2026.
The Progress party, a right-leaning party, which is currently predicted to crush the Labour party in the election, is also seeking to cut off the Denmark interconnection and to renegotiate the power exchange agreements with the UK, as well as with EU member Germany.
This would ease what politicians told FT “the price infection” that Norway catches from the EU.
Case in point: electricity rates in Norway hit record-highs this week, despite full hydro reservoirs and no cold snap, per the Norwegian standards of a ‘cold snap’.
The electricity generated in Norway was needed in Germany and Denmark where low wind speeds tightened power supply margins and sent power prices spiking again.
As summed up by Norway’s Energy Minister Terje Aasland for FT:
“It’s an absolutely shit situation.”
See more here oilprice.com
Header image: Oil & Gas News
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