Statnett’s Norway-Germany Project to Be Realised in 2018

Statnett's Norway-Germany Project to Be Realised in 2018

At a meeting in Berlin yesterday between Minister of Petroleum and Energy Ola Borten Moe and Germany’s Federal Minister of Economics and Technology Philipp Rösler it was made clear that Statnett’s plans for a power cable between Norway and Germany can be realised in 2018. At the same time Statnett and the British company National Grid confirm their plans to develop an electricity interconnector between Norway and the UK.

Statnett, the German system operator TenneT and the German national bank KfW are working together on the German project.

“I am very pleased with the opportunities it provides for enabling cross-border electricity trading between Germany and Norway. The companies have found a good solution for both countries. This cable is an important step forward in the good energy cooperation between our two countries,” says Borten Moe.

Statnett has also entered into a partnership agreement with the British company National Grid that confirms plans to build a power cable between Norway and the UK. Scheduled for completion in 2020, the cable will be the longest subsea power cable in the world.

Together, the two cables will strengthen the North European electricity grid and the supply security in Norway. The cables will be used for profitable trading of power in that electricity will flow to Norway when prices in Germany and the UK are lower than here. In the same way, they will export when prices are high abroad, and will therefore import when consumption is low in other countries, such as at night, and export during the day. Also they will import when windmills abroad produce at full capacity. During dry years with high prices in Norway, they will import – and vice versa in wet years. Power trading will also help facilitate increased development of renewable energy production in both Norway and Europe.

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Subsea World News Staff , June 22, 2012; Image: Ministry of Petroleum and Energy