Electricity, April 2002

Gross consumption of electric power was 45.7 TWh for the first 4 months this year, down 8.7 per cent compared with the corresponding 4 months last year. The temperature has been above normal so far this year, and April was no exception. The temperature for the entire country was 2.7 degrees above zero in April, and this is the second highest since Norway started recording the temperatures in 1866. The prices of electric energy in April went down 9.9 per cent compared with April last year. The tendency of increasing prices earlier this year may have influenced the consumption in April as well.

The consumption of electric energy in energy-intensive manufacturing was 2 568 GWh in April, 7.3 per cent less than the corresponding month last year. The sale of heavy fuel oil to industry was also low in April.

Higher production

The production of electric energy was 9 724 GWh in April, up 4.5 per cent compared with the corresponding month last year. For the first 4 months this year the production was 2.7 per cent lower than for the corresponding period last year. The last twelve-month period the production went down by 13.6 per cent compared with the previous twelve-month period last year.

Net imports

Norway imported 753 GWh and exported 540 GWh in April. For the first 4 months the imports went down by 36.5 per cent and the exports increased by 79.7 per cent compared with the corresponding 4 months last year.

Tables:

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