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Ironically, here in Norway we're usually WELL covered as far as energy surplus goes. 95% of our energy comes from hydropower, and our electricity prices have us

Ironically, here in Norway we're usually WELL covered as far as energy surplus goes. 95% of our energy comes from hydropower, and our electricity prices have usually been some of the lowest in Europe. But just to be on the safe side, energy (transfer) cables to Europe were expanded - on the off-chance that we'd need to import energy during times like drought. That, of course, backfired - right now energy producers in Norway are exporting power hand over fist, and half the country is stuck with energy prices which are 15-20x historical prices. Norway is divided into five energy regions, the two northernmost regions have been shielded, for no other reason than that the transfer capability between North and South is too poor/low. Right now the most expensive region in Norway (around 580€/MWh) is paying over FOUR HUNDRED times more for energy, than the cheapest region (around 1.4€/MWh). So luckily the government has stepped in, and subsidizes / caps the utility bill to private citizens, after a certain price. But that is not the case for businesses - where many, especially smaller business operate on spot contracts. The large and energy intensive industries tend to operate on long-term contracts, spanning over years, but it's worse for restaurants / pubs / mom'n pop retail stores / etc. that suddenly see a hundredfold spike in utility bills. Winter is going to be absolutely brutal.

SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago
> In Norway ... 95% of our energy comes from hydropower, Meanwhile, in the Uk, the current leader is AWOL, and as for the next one, well: https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/truss-sunak-energy-policy-environment-green-party-b2137576.html https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/truss-suna... > Winter is going to be absolutely brutal. in the UK, agreed. English people don't usually take to the streets in protest, they prefer to stay warm at home watching TV, or go to the pub; but what will happen when people can't afford to turn on the heating and TV, and the pub is closed?
ZeroGravitas 4y ago
This comment followed an oddity I noticed in the article, of talking about "energy" rather than electricity specifically. https://www.iea.org/countries/norway https://www.iea.org/countries/norway This suggests half your energy is coal/gas/oil so why would you expect to not be paying more? Especially if you export 90% of that and hit record exports in dollar terms last month. Someone in Norway is doing well out of the rising prices for oil and gas. I had thought they were one of the better countries for sharing that wealth fairly, but I guess even they're not as good as they could be. > The government’s total net cash flow from the petroleum industry is estimated to be NOK 933 billion in 2022. The estimate for 2022 is NOK 645 billion higher compared to the net cash flow in 2021, mainly due to higher estimates for oil and gas prices.
- TrackerFF 4y ago
  Yes, when it comes to total energy production, we do have a lot of oil and gas - but that's mainly being sold / exported. Hydropower is by far the leading energy source for production of electricity - Seems like in 2020, 1.3 TWh of our electricity production came from natural gas - while 141 TWh came from hydropower. Wind at second place with 9.9 TWh. Now, all energy production (AFAIK) here is owned by the Norwegian Government. So high exports would naturally mean more money to Norway - which they then "pay back" to the people by subsidizing high utility / electricity bills in unprecedent times like these. The crux is simply that people in Norway have been used to very low electricity prices, for pretty much forever now. Seeing your bill increase by 3-6 times (even after the subsidies) has not been popular - especially not since many feel that this situation has been artificially created by the energy actors. Worst case, we sell all our reserve electricity because prices are high, and experience rolling blackouts if we can't import enough come winter. EDIT: In the first link you posted, you can see in the graph there's one indicator named "Electricity generation by source", you will see that Hydro absolutely dominates Norwegian electricity production. Other countries are much more diversified in that area, but also considerably exposed to natural gas - which seems to be the driver behind this crisis, as there's a shortage in exactly that.
  - ZeroGravitas 4y ago
    As far as I can tell there's no actual problem, Norway will in general 'win' from this situation. The only problem is the local right-wing parties trying to use this as an excuse to do really stupid things, like build more gas fired electricity plants, and stop electrifying things, and equally preventing the government from doing sensible things to help. But it's astounding that high prices for oil and gas can be turned into a 'crisis' that the right-wing want to 'solve' by burning even more gas, even in Norway. Meanwhile the actual 'right-wing' (if you interpret that as being based on sound business and economic principles rather than capture by fossil fuel interests) thing to do would be to sell when the price is high and use the profits to spend on things you need or want.

SideburnsOfDoom 4y ago

> In Norway ... 95% of our energy comes from hydropower, Meanwhile, in the Uk, the current leader is AWOL, and as for the next one, well: https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/truss-sunak-energy-policy-environment-green-party-b2137576.html https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/truss-suna... > Winter is going to be absolutely brutal. in the UK, agreed. English people don't usually take to the streets in protest, they prefer to stay warm at home watching TV, or go to the pub; but what will happen when people can't afford to turn on the heating and TV, and the pub is closed?

ZeroGravitas 4y ago

This comment followed an oddity I noticed in the article, of talking about "energy" rather than electricity specifically. https://www.iea.org/countries/norway https://www.iea.org/countries/norway This suggests half your energy is coal/gas/oil so why would you expect to not be paying more? Especially if you export 90% of that and hit record exports in dollar terms last month. Someone in Norway is doing well out of the rising prices for oil and gas. I had thought they were one of the better countries for sharing that wealth fairly, but I guess even they're not as good as they could be. > The government’s total net cash flow from the petroleum industry is estimated to be NOK 933 billion in 2022. The estimate for 2022 is NOK 645 billion higher compared to the net cash flow in 2021, mainly due to higher estimates for oil and gas prices.

TrackerFF 4y ago
Yes, when it comes to total energy production, we do have a lot of oil and gas - but that's mainly being sold / exported. Hydropower is by far the leading energy source for production of electricity - Seems like in 2020, 1.3 TWh of our electricity production came from natural gas - while 141 TWh came from hydropower. Wind at second place with 9.9 TWh. Now, all energy production (AFAIK) here is owned by the Norwegian Government. So high exports would naturally mean more money to Norway - which they then "pay back" to the people by subsidizing high utility / electricity bills in unprecedent times like these. The crux is simply that people in Norway have been used to very low electricity prices, for pretty much forever now. Seeing your bill increase by 3-6 times (even after the subsidies) has not been popular - especially not since many feel that this situation has been artificially created by the energy actors. Worst case, we sell all our reserve electricity because prices are high, and experience rolling blackouts if we can't import enough come winter. EDIT: In the first link you posted, you can see in the graph there's one indicator named "Electricity generation by source", you will see that Hydro absolutely dominates Norwegian electricity production. Other countries are much more diversified in that area, but also considerably exposed to natural gas - which seems to be the driver behind this crisis, as there's a shortage in exactly that.
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
  As far as I can tell there's no actual problem, Norway will in general 'win' from this situation. The only problem is the local right-wing parties trying to use this as an excuse to do really stupid things, like build more gas fired electricity plants, and stop electrifying things, and equally preventing the government from doing sensible things to help. But it's astounding that high prices for oil and gas can be turned into a 'crisis' that the right-wing want to 'solve' by burning even more gas, even in Norway. Meanwhile the actual 'right-wing' (if you interpret that as being based on sound business and economic principles rather than capture by fossil fuel interests) thing to do would be to sell when the price is high and use the profits to spend on things you need or want.