A bad for a good. After a rainy summer in Norway, electricity should be free on Monday in Oslo and Bergen, the two largest cities in the country, according to the specialized information site Europower. In a country where electricity is almost exclusively from hydraulic sources, the price of the kWh is correlated to the level of precipitation: the more it rains or snows, the more the reservoirs are filled, the cheaper the electricity.
The “Hans” storm that hit Scandinavia in August and the heavy summer rains had the effect of filling the reservoirs of the dams in certain regions of the kingdom. Result: the spot price of kWh, before taxes and network charges, should oscillate between 0 and -0.3 crowns (-0.03 euro cents) this Monday in Oslo, the capital, and in Bergen, the second city of the country located on the west coast, according to Europower.
A negative price means that companies pay consumers to sell their production. “Producers have explained in the past that it is better to produce when prices are a little bit negative than to take measures to stop production,” the site specifies. Even if the spot price is slightly in the red in certain regions of the kingdom – divided into several tariff zones – the companies pocket in particular sums linked to green electricity certificates.
Consequences of climate change
According to climatologists, global warming is reflected in northern Europe by more and more intense precipitation. Last week, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute reported that August temperatures in Norway were 0.9°C above seasonal normal and that after an already wet July, rainfall there was 45% above normal levels. .
“All this rain, including ‘Hans’, contains elements of climate change in itself,” commented researcher Anita Verpe Dyrrdal, quoted in a press release. At a station in the south of the country, 392.7 mm of rain was recorded in August, 257% more than normal. According to Europower, this is the second time that electricity prices have been negative in parts of Norway, the first dating back to August 8, in the immediate wake of storm “Hans”.