Record high energy consumption in 1996

A booming economy and cold winter temperatures combined to push energy use in Norway to an all-time high in 1996. Energy use last year was the highest ever in all main industries with the exception of power-intensive industry. Consumption of energy increased the most in services and households.

High electricity prices last year prompted a shift from electricity to oil products. Total consumption of heating oil increased by 30 per cent and heavy oil by 26 percent from the year before, while the consumption of electricity went down barely one per cent. By comparison, the consumption of electricity has been rising by an average of two per cent annually over the past 20 years.

Domestic consumption of energy last year totalled 772 Petajoules (PJ), an increase of 3.5 per cent from the year before. The transition from electricity to oil last year may, however, explain some of the major upturn in energy use. Oil products are less efficient than electricity and utilization is therefore lower. Measured in terms of utilized energy, energy consumption last year was 2.8 higher than the year before.

In the services sector, there was a particularly large increase--40 per cent--in the use of middle distillates, i.e. auto diesel oil, heating oil and heavy distillate, from 1995 to 1996. There was also some increase in the use of electricity in this sector. The use of heavy oil surged in industry, at the same time as consumption of electricity was reduced by around five per cent. This is connected to the fact that many industrial companies have oil-fired plants in addition to electric boilers, and can therefore easily switch between oil and non-priority electricity as energy prices fluctuate.

The spot price of non-priority power in 1996 was an average of 25.2 øre/kWh, more than twice the level of the previous year. The prices of firm power also increased last year, as the result of low reservoir levels and high spot prices.

New Statistics

Energy accounts and energy sources balance, 1995 and 1996.
Statistics are published in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics and the Official Statistics of Norway (NOS) Energy Statistics 1996 (will be released in November). More information: Kristin Rypdal, tel. +47 21 09 49 49, e-mail: krr@ssb.no, Ann Christin Bøeng, tel. +47 21 09 47 43, e-mail: abg@ssb.no or Lisbet Høgset, tel. +47 21 09 49 49 53, e-mail: lho@ssb.no.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 38, 1997