Electricity, January 2001

The production of electricity in January increased by 5.6 per cent compared with the corresponding month last year and was 3.1 per cent higher than previous record for this month from 1996. The high production can be seen in connection with the contents in the water reservoirs having been higher than the median for this period from 1990 to 1999. The electricity production the last 12 months was 143 736 GWh, which is an increase of 15.8 per cent compared with the previous 12 months period.

The contents in the water reservoirs in mid-January were 72.6 per cent of the total capacity. This is 5.8 percentage points higher than the median for this period from 1990 to 1999, but is 2.0 percentage points lower than the corresponding period last year.

Small production of wind power in Norway

The production of wind power constitutes a very small part of the total electricity production in Norway. In January the production of wind power was 3 GWh, which is 0.02 per cent of the total production of electricity for this month. Thermal power constituted approximately 0.5 per cent of electricity production, while waterpower constituted 99.5 per cent. The production of wind power for the last 12 months was 29 GWh. The goal for the Norwegian supply of energy is that the production of wind power shall constitute 3 TWh each year from 2010. The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate has given licences for new wind power plants which have a total estimated capacity of production of 1 600 GWh. Whether these plants in fact will be constructed depends among other thing on future electricity prices.

The consumption of electricity still increases

The consumption of electricity in January was record high and 6.9 per cent or 885 GWh higher than the corresponding month last year, which is also the previous record for this month. The consumption of electricity in other consumption than in energy-intensive manufacturing was also record high, although the mean temperature in January was above normal for the whole country. The consumption in the production of intensive-energy manufacturing in January was 2 956 GWh.

Net export surplus of electricity

Norway exported more electricity in January than we imported. Exports of electricity in January were 912 GWh and imports were 491 GWh, which gives an export surplus of 421 GWh. The value of the export surplus was NOK 70.9 million.

Tables:

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