Electricity, November 2000

The production of electricity in November at 12 095 GWh is the second highest that has been recorded for the month of November, only 2.1 per cent lower than the record for this month from 1995. The high production of electricity in November can be partially explained by the unusually wet weather in the eastern and southern part of Norway and extraordinary high temperatures in the entire country. According to Norwegian Meteorological Institute this is the first time ever in the history of the Institute that temperatures below zero have not been measured in Oslo for November. The mild weather has given more trickles to the water reservoirs than normally. The production of electricity in November was 20 per cent higher in the southern and the eastern part of the country compared with the same month last year. Except for two counties the rest of the country had a decrease.

From January to November the production of electricity was record high at 129 499 GWh, which is an increase of 18.3 per cent compared with the corresponding period in 1999. The accumulated production in 2000 is also 5.1 per cent higher than the previous production record for the whole year from 1999. The production the last 12 months was 142 658 GWh. This is a considerable increase of 18.0 per cent from the previous 12 months period.

The contents in the water reservoirs in mid-November were 91.3 per cent of the total capacity. This is 0.7 percentage point higher than the corresponding period in 1999 and 4.5 percentage points higher than the median for this period from 1990 to 1999.

High consumption of electricity and temperatures above normal

Even though the temperatures in November were substantially above normal, the gross consumption of electricity was relatively high at 11 101 GWh. From January to November 2000 the consumption was 111 445 GWh and the consumption the last 12 months was 124 515 GWh, compared with the same period in 1999 which is an increase of 3.4 and 3.8 per cent respectively.

The consumption of electricity in energy-intensive industry was 2 750 GWh in November. The largest increase in the consumption was in the production of industrial chemicals, 37.6 per cent. The relatively large increase in consumption in production of industrial chemicals can be partially explained by the fact that the statistics now cover this industry better. From January to November the electricity consumption was 30 630 GWh, and the consumption the last 12 months was 33 342 GWh.

Large export surplus to Sweden

Imports and exports of electricity in November were 268 and 1 261 GWh respectively. This gives an export surplus of 993 GWh. From January to November 2000 the export surplus of electricity was 18 054 GWh. Largest was the export surplus to Sweden with 14 040 GWh, whereas the surplus to Denmark was 4 239 GWh. As a comparison in 1999 it was an import surplus of 99 GWh from Sweden. The high export surplus to Sweden so far in 2000 can be seen in connection with the Swedish production of electricity. The production of electricity from January to October 2000 in Sweden was down 7.0 per cent compared with the same period in 1999, while there was a small increase in the consumption of electricity in the same period. This has led to an increase in the Swedish imports of electricity. The decrease in the production of electricity in Sweden is a result of a considerable decrease in the production of nuclear power and thermal power compared with the corresponding period in 1999.

Tables:

• Table 1 Production, import, export and consumption of electric energy. GWh. Preliminary figures