Households must expect high electricity prices through Christmas, but it will be much worse in the south than in the north.
Tor Reier Lilleholt, head of analysis at Wattsight, rightly believes that power prices will most likely be somewhat lower than what we see in southern Norway now. The average daily price has been at most almost 4 kroner for 1 kilowatt hour (kWh).
– But between 2 and 3 kroner kWh you have to reckon with in southern Norway, while northern Norway can quickly manage at a level around 50 øre per kWh, Lilleholt says to Nettavisen Økonomi.
– Nevertheless, prices are now at an extraordinarily high level. With the prospect of very low temperatures, the price expectations for Christmas Eve and the other days of the Christmas holiday are also very high, is the gloomy message.
A kilowatt hour is not the same as a clock hour. How much time you spend consuming 1 kWh depends on how much power you use.
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10-12 degrees Celsius
If we look at the weather forecasts at yr.no, significantly colder weather is forecast for the future. The temperature at night on Christmas Eve Blind may fall to below -10 and it is predicted cold weather right up until December 30th. In isolation, this speaks in favor of high electricity prices.
In Bergen it can be seven degrees Celsius on Christmas Day, in Trondheim down to 10 cold in several of the days ahead. The inhabitants of Kristiansand must cover themselves with freezing temperatures around the clock from and including Christmas Eve until and including 29 December.
Colder weather means higher electricity consumption, and a big city like Berlin will, according to yr.no, also experience more degrees of cold from the first day of Christmas. Low temperatures on the continent are bad news for Norwegian households.
– What about the afternoon on Christmas Eve, is the electricity consumption extra high then?
– I know an hour around Christmas dinner and when all the lights are on when it gets dark, often have an extra high consumption peak in Norwegian homes this day.
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Lower consumption
– But when it comes to Christmas Eve, it is quite clear that consumption on such a day is lower than other weekdays. This is mainly due to the fact that a lot of business and also industry, such as the paper factory at Norske Skog, is closing down or has reduced activity, Lilleholt answers.
Wattsight therefore expects a reduced consumption of around 5 percent compared to a normal everyday life.
Average power prices have varied greatly in recent days. On 21 December, the daily price in Oslo, Kristiansand and Bergen was more than NOK 3.90 kWh, according to figures from the power exchange Nord Pool. The estimate for December 22 is approx. 2.60 kroner, while the price on Sunday 19 December was down to approx. 1.50 kroner.
In Tromsø we are talking about completely different levels, here the kilowatt price in the past week has varied between 20 øre and 62 øre.
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