SVELVIK (VG) The Nyhus Aasland family lives in the most expensive price range in the country with a record of NOK 4 and 22 øre per kilowatt hour on Thursday. A few meters away in the direction of Drammen, people escape half the price of electricity.
– Odd that the neighborhood has two different price ranges. We lived in Svelvik and became part of the municipality of Drammen after the merger. So I think it should stay that way, Irene Niehus Ausland tells VG.
Electricity price will be fixed on Thursday Four kroner per kilowatt-hour in southwestern Norway, belonging to subscribers in Svelvik. A few meters north along Svelvikveien from the Nyhus Aasland family, electricity costs – two kroner per kilowatt hour. Like others in the municipality of Drumman, its residents belong to the price range for eastern Norway.
– I also notice that electricity prices from Southern Norway to Trøndelag and Northern Norway are very different from ours. There is a big difference. I thought electricity should be a public good for everyone in this country, says Nyhus Aasland.
She is home with her family with two children after a vacation to Denmark. At home, they have both a jacuzzi and a small heated swimming pool for the kids. There is a lot of electricity. Irish people are not interested in power and energy policy. But she is interested in economics. Now she feels that the price of both electricity, fuel and food has gone up.
– Unfair to people
Swellwick resident Roger-Thomas Wolden (48) thinks the same. He also believes it is unfair to treat people living in the same municipality differently.
– I notice this myself as I have a room in Blefjell near Kongsberg. Electricity prices are significantly lower there than in Svelvik, where the family lives, even though it is the same electricity company. This shows how inconsistently electricity prices are set. But the most unfair thing for people in Svelvik is that there are two price limits within the same municipality, Volden tells VG.
It is also difficult for him to grasp who is responsible for this skewed price between price ranges.
– After all, the state administration, Statkraft, Statnet and NVE (Norway’s Directorate of Water and Energy) are both bureaucratic. In addition, power transmission NordPool and private consultants and actors from the industry are trying to influence. It’s time for politicians to take more control in some areas, says Roger-Thomas Wolden, a family man and Swedish Svalbard for generations.
He does not primarily want to speak on behalf of his own situation and family, but is happy to speak on behalf of the people of Svelvik.
Rocknhild Ask Connell, communications manager at electricity company Clitray Energy for most people in Tramen in the eastern Norwegian price region, confirms that the border between the two price areas runs between Svelvik and Drammen via Svelvikveen near the Norkips factory. Nyhus is where the Aasland family lives.
– I can confirm that the border for the two price areas runs along Svelvikveien near the Norgips factory. Ask Connell says it follows the old municipal boundary.
Statnet: Understands that people care
Statnet, which is in charge of the electricity grid in Norway, apologizes for the large price differences. But not planning to do anything with five price ranges.
– We understand that people are concerned about high electricity prices and feel that large price differences are unfair. In Norway, price caps have existed for decades. Irene Meldal, communications manager at Statnett, says that what we are seeing now is new, with very high prices in southern Norway and extreme price differences domestically in Norway for a long time.
He explains the high prices in southern Norway with an unusual situation where, among other things, the Russian gas shutdown resulted in very high European prices at a time when there was little water in southern Norwegian reservoirs.
– Why should electricity customers in different price areas pay different prices for Norwegian public good electricity?
– Norway is divided into five price zones. Norwegian electricity is structured with power generation and consumption spread across the country, and in many places power generation and industry are established close to each other. As a result, the electric field between all parts is not necessarily equally strong. We have built many kilometers of new wiring, especially in the last decade, and plan to build many more.
– However, in many situations there is a greater desire to transfer power than the capacity in the network. The places where such “barriers” often occur become boundaries between price zones, Meldel responds on StatNet.
– Is Statenet doing anything to even out these price differences?
– Electricity price is determined based on supply (power generation) and demand (consumption) in each region. If electricity is supplied at a lower cost in a neighboring area, electricity is transferred from the lower cost area to the higher cost area until the capacity of the wires and cables between the areas is exhausted. Meltahl explains that if capacity is less than needed to obtain equal prices between regions, prices will be different.
He adds that increased power generation, increased line capacity and more and better transformers will have a cost-balancing effect in the long run.
– Perceived unfairly
– Does StatNet think you’re reaching people – and understand that pricing is very different across different price ranges?
– Power supply and power markets can be difficult to get used to, and we understand that with the extraordinary price differences we’ve had over the past year, it’s unfair, the Statenet representative responds.
Irene Nyhus Aasland enjoys the summer sun at home with her family. Grandmother Anne Britt Ausland (70) visits. All three generations have felt the price rise in the body in recent months. Not just in electricity.
– I was recently in Minneapolis in the US and usually travel there with Icelandair. This summer trip will cost me 8,000 NOK. About a year ago, I paid NOK 4,000 for the same trip, says Patti Ösland.
read more: Many things About The price goes up
Despite rising electricity prices, she believes her home in Romerick has weathered the winter well.
– But I saved in the heat. Ausland remembers going into the house, well-dressed, with the temperature inside at 17 degrees.
Daughter Irene, who has two children at home, has particularly noticed the high prices of food and fuel – apart from electricity prices.
Often runs into the thousands
– We have decent finances and are not struggling overall. But we notice that when we have to buy food for a week, it costs thousands instead of hundreds of rupees. We use both cars. And that Fuel price It is very stressful. Irene explains that we are happy when a liter is NOK 21.
When electricity prices began to drop last fall, she and her family were forced to take one. The move means that, for now, they don’t care much about the differences in electricity prices Like many others.
– We no longer dare to be at spot prices. We were lucky when we agreed to a fixed price contract in November. That means 79 øre per kilowatt hour. So far we are very satisfied, says the mother of two.
In the center of Svelvik, the self-proclaimed discount stores Kiwi and Rema 1000 are located almost side by side on Norway’s narrowest ferry line.
Outside Rema, we chat to a Svelvik woman, one of many who thinks food prices have gone haywire this summer.
– I especially react to the fact that a small glass of Sealox, which cost NOK 36 a few months ago, is now NOK 90, says the woman, who does not want to be photographed or named in the newspaper.
She loves the spread, but today she left it on the shelf.
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