![]() ![]() However, when the hydropower plants are working at full capacity, the reservoir could be emptied in 7–8 months. Norway’s largest reservoir, Blåsjø, has a capacity of 7.8 TWh and can hold three years’ normal inflow. Hydropower plants with larger reservoirs can store water for longer periods so that they produce electricity in winter, when consumption and prices are highest. Some hydropower plants with small reservoirs offer short-term flexibility, and can transfer production from base-load hours (at night) to peak-load hours (daytime). The flexibility of power plants and reservoirs varies. Production is high during spring and summer, when consumption is lowest. ![]() Production of intermittent hydropower automatically varies with changes in water inflow. The large available reservoir storage capacity makes it possible to even out production over years, seasons, weeks and days, within the constraints set by the licence and the watercourse itself.Ī high proportion of the energy used for heating in Norway is electricity, and electricity prices and production from storage hydropower plants are therefore generally highest in winter. Upgrading and expansion of hydropower plants has made it possible to utilise the reservoirs more fully.īy using storage reservoirs, flexible hydropower plants can produce electricity even in periods when there is little precipitation and inflow is low. Most of the reservoirs were constructed before 1990. Total reservoir capacity corresponds to 70 % of annual Norwegian electricity consumption. The 30 largest reservoirs provide about half the storage capacity. Norway has more than 1000 hydropower storage reservoirs with a total capacity of more than 87 TWh. In the period 1990–2019, annual inflow to Norwegian hydropower plants has varied by about 65 TWh. ![]() Inflow is generally very low in the winter months. It is highest in spring, normally declines towards the end of summer but increases again during the autumn. Inflow varies considerably during the year and from one year to another. Water inflow and installed capacity determine how much hydropower the Norwegian system can produce. At the beginning of 2021 a further 2.3 TWh was under construction. In a normal year, the Norwegian hydropower plants produce 136.4 TWh, which is 90 % of Norways total power production. At the beginning of 2021, there were 1 681 hydropower plants in Norway, with a combined installed capasity of 33 055 MW. Hydropower is still the mainstay of the Norwegian electricity system. Integration with other countries’ power systems, the well-developed power grid and the characteristics of hydropower production make Norway’s power supply system very flexible, reducing vulnerability to fluctuations in production between seasons and years. In turn, the Nordic market is integrated with the rest of Europe through cross-border interconnectors to the Netherlands, Germany, the Baltic states, Poland and Russia. ![]() The Norwegian power system is closely integrated with the other Nordic systems, both in physical terms and through market integration. A well-developed power grid is vital for transmitting electricity to consumers in all parts of the country. Production capacity is therefore unequally distributed between different regions of Norway. Renewable power plants are generally sited where there is access to resources. Electricity prices provide long-term investment signals and also play an important part in short-term balancing of supply, demand and transmission. The market is now a fundamental element of the Norwegian power supply. The power market in Norway was deregulated in 1991, when few countries had market-based power systems. The growing share of intermittent production technologies, such as wind and solar, makes it even more vital that there is flexibility available in the rest of the system. This is important because there must be a balance between production and consumption at all times in the power system. Production can be rapidly increased and decreased as needed, at low cost. Norway has half of Europe’s reservoir storage capacity, and more than 75 % of Norwegian production capacity is flexible. One special feature of the Norwegian hydropower system is its high storage capacity. This is a significant difference for the rest of Europe where security of supply is mainly secured through thermal power plants, with fuels available in the energy markets. Hydropower accounts for the most of Norwegian power supplies, and the resource base for production depends on the precipitation in a given year. ![]()
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