Electricity, March 2008

The high production of power can be seen in conjunction with a good reservoir filling and information throughout the quarter that there was more snow available in the mountains for hydro power production this year than the median for the same period. The reservoir filling was 45.0 per cent at the end of week 13, while the normal degree of filling for the same week in the period 1990-2007 was 39.5 per cent.

The production of power came to 13 616 GWh in March, an increase of 18.5 per cent compared with the corresponding month in 2007.

High consumption of electricity

The consumption of electricity in power-intensive manufacturing came to 8 526 GWh in the first quarter of 2008. This is 2.6 per cent higher than in the corresponding quarter last year. Despite high temperatures in the first quarter of 2008 (the average temperature for Norway in January and February was 4.5 and 4.6 centigrades above normal, respectively), the consumption without power-intensive manufacturing totalled 25 776 GWh. This is 1.2 per cent higher than in the first quarter of 2007 and the third highest figure ever recorded. Households, services and other manufacturing than the power-intensive account for the majority of this consumption. While the consumption of electricity in mining and oil refineries fell by 1.0 per cent in the first quarter of 2008 compared with the corresponding quarter of last year, the consumption in pulp and paper products and transport rose by 4.7 and 0.5 percent, respectively.

The consumption without power-intensive manufacturing totalled 8 462 GWh in March, which is 8.0 per cent more than in the same month in 2007

High Net exports of power

Norway’s imports of power came to 968 GWh in the first quarter of 2008, while exports totalled 3 555 GWh. This gave a net export of 2 587 GWh.

See also

Prices of electric energy

Tables:

• Table 1 Electricity balance. Monthly. GWh
• Table 2 Production of electricity, on county level. GWh
• Table 3 Electricity balance. Quarterly. GWh