Air conditioning at full blast has little impact on power consumption
(7/7/2009)
Sweltering Norwegians who turn up the air conditioning at home and at work do not cause higher power consumption for the country as a whole. Power consumption has been slightly lower during these warm weeks than for the same period last year. Total power consumption has declined by 5 per cent so far this year.
Hot days do not increase total consumption
During the hot days from Monday, 22 June to Sunday, 28 June of this year, Norwegian power consumption was between 7.9 million and 12 million kilowatts, or 7900 and 12 000 megawatts (MW). This is a decrease compared with the same period last year, when consumption ran between 9000 and 12 000 MW.
The 20 per cent lower consumption in energy-intensive industries from last year to this year more than offsets higher power consumption for air conditioning on warm summer days. In the bigger picture, turning up the air conditioning units a few notches has little impact on total Norwegian power consumption.
5 per cent lower total consumption so far this year
Total Norwegian production through Week 25 is 63.1 TWh, 10 per cent lower than at the same time last year. This reduction is primarily due to extraordinarily high production in 2008.
Total consumption in Norway during the 25 first weeks of the year amounted to 61.6 TWh, which is 5 per cent lower than for the same period in 2008. The financial crisis has curbed consumption, particularly in energy-intensive industry. A Norsk Industri forecast from June estimates that industrial power consumption in Norway in 2009 will be 7 TWh lower than in 2008.
Read more about the Nordic market from a Norwegian perspective here.
Contact in Statnett:
Communications Manager Rune Gutteberg Hansen – tel.: +47 22 52 70 00
