Our assessment of ACER and a power line to Scotland stays firm.
We have completed our assessment of ACER and a new power line from Norway to Scotland, with the basic concept ‘Follow the money’ in mind, and conclude the following:
1. There is not much money in a power line to Europe. Rapports from earlier lines show this. The European based companies will earn the money by producing the appropriate bottlenecks in the electrical grid. It’s naive to conclude something else. Batteries will overcome cloudy and calm days and electricity from wind and solar with govern, and very little power will be exported from Norway. We cannot find the word batteries in Oslo based papers. As very little electricity will be exported we see no general increase of electricity prices. Norway has to change to water based heating before any drastic changes can happen.
Sum up: To export electricity or increase prices internally is not the reason why the power companies in Norway would like to be hooked up to Europe, i.e. a power line to Europe is not by itself the reason why.
2. The main concern for the Norwegian power companies is the change of time, we now value the river environment more favorably than say fifty years ago. The power plants are afraid to in a revision lose the free conditions of maneuvering that earlier were given, and here is where the money is. The power line to Scotland is used in revisions to excuse the continuation of the old free maneuvering conditions in Norway, including increased effect running and in essence no minimum water.
Our conclusion is that the power line from Norway to Scotland is used for the justification of keeping old maneuvering conditions of river regulations in the revisions in Norway. Even though the line is never built decided conditions in a completed revison can’t be altered for thirty years according to ‘vassdragsreguleringsloven’.