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They also have limits on how much power they can transfer before the lines sag too much. Here in Norway the limitations of our rather poorly connected energy g

They also have limits on how much power they can transfer before the lines sag too much. Here in Norway the limitations of our rather poorly connected energy grid has become very apparent last few years, with 100x price difference between regions that aren't that far apart physically. While we've been paying "winter prices" during summer, up north they've shut down hydro plants since the prices there are so low it's less than operating costs.

pfdietz 1y ago
> They also have limits on how much power they can transfer before the lines sag too much. That can be helped by reconductoring. https://www.utilitydive.com/news/reconductoring-power-lines-transmission-capacity-goldman-gridlab/712643/ https://www.utilitydive.com/news/reconductoring-power-lines-...
m55au 1y ago
I looked at tomorrow's (8th of October 2025) prices in Norway and Sweden. Northern Norway drops down to (negative!) -15 €/MWh at 17:45 while southern Sweden peaks at 190 €/MWh at the same time. So that's that for buying "from across the continent", let alone from your neighbors or even your own small country. I'm not sure that even the suggested reconductoring would help that much. To answer ajross: I'm quite sure that the shutdown of Ringhals and Barsebäck in southern Sweden has had a much greater impact on their and likely southern Norway's prices as well than building for example 10 times the equivalent solar capacity in Spain. It is not even about losses, but just the grid capacity. Theoretically the prices in Nord Pool (from southern France and western Ireland to northern Norway and eastern Baltics) should be equal. As pointed out, in practice they vary wildly. And in principle it can get even worse. It would not be too unrealistic to have negative prices in northern Norway and rolling blackouts in southern Sweden at the same time. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader how the latter can even happen when Sweden has enough capacity to meet its power demand at that time.

pfdietz 1y ago

> They also have limits on how much power they can transfer before the lines sag too much. That can be helped by reconductoring. https://www.utilitydive.com/news/reconductoring-power-lines-transmission-capacity-goldman-gridlab/712643/ https://www.utilitydive.com/news/reconductoring-power-lines-...

m55au 1y ago

I looked at tomorrow's (8th of October 2025) prices in Norway and Sweden. Northern Norway drops down to (negative!) -15 €/MWh at 17:45 while southern Sweden peaks at 190 €/MWh at the same time. So that's that for buying "from across the continent", let alone from your neighbors or even your own small country. I'm not sure that even the suggested reconductoring would help that much. To answer ajross: I'm quite sure that the shutdown of Ringhals and Barsebäck in southern Sweden has had a much greater impact on their and likely southern Norway's prices as well than building for example 10 times the equivalent solar capacity in Spain. It is not even about losses, but just the grid capacity. Theoretically the prices in Nord Pool (from southern France and western Ireland to northern Norway and eastern Baltics) should be equal. As pointed out, in practice they vary wildly. And in principle it can get even worse. It would not be too unrealistic to have negative prices in northern Norway and rolling blackouts in southern Sweden at the same time. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader how the latter can even happen when Sweden has enough capacity to meet its power demand at that time.