OLSO: Norway’s vast resources of Europe’s cheapest and greenest electricity has helped its energy-intensive industry gain an edge and produce everything from aluminum to chemicals and tankers. But now the nation’s powerful unions are objecting to plans by grid managers and utilities to get in on the act by spending more than $6 billion on cables to profit from selling electricity abroad where prices are as much as 30 percent more expensive. Industry Energy, part of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, says this will hike Norwegian prices, cost jobs and curb investment. Norway is already exporting electricity to its Nordic neighbors and the Netherlands and is building new cables to Germany and the U.K. to sell even more. That’s enough, say the unions and want the government to halt plans for a cable to Scotland and the adoption of new Europe-wide trading rules set by the region’s regulator ACER.
Norway gets 99 percent of its electricity from running water through turbines, one of the cheapest ways to generate power. German and U.K. prices are partly decided by fossil-fuel costs, which can swing widely. The unions are concerned that if Norway exports its surplus, it could be forced to import at higher rates to meet demand at other times. Industry Energy, with close links to the Labor Party, staged a protest outside the Parliament last week to try to influence policy makers. Bills will be examined in the energy committee next month, with a vote planned in Parliament for March.
