Lysaker, 01 July 2004 Nord Pool has received the following information from the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE): Norway's power import increased from 58 GWh in week 25 to 211 GWh in week 26. The main reason behind the decrease was lower consumption in both Sweden and Finland due to Midsummer celebrations. In Finland, the production also fell sharply, while the Swedish production increased. The reason for the rise in production in Sweden is the Nuclear power plants being put back in operation after yearly maintenance. As a consequence of these changes, the power price in our neighbouring country fell. Especially, towards the end of the week the Norwegian spot price was higher than in the neighbouring countries. However, the available transmission capacity was not high enough to eliminate the price difference. Also during week 26, the precipitation was higher than the average in Norway. The influx of water to the reservoirs was nevertheless lower than normal, due to less snow melting. As of Monday 28 June, the level in Norwegian hydropower reservoirs was 58 per cent after an increase of 2.8 percentage points through week 26. In Sweden, the reservoir levels rose 3.5 percentage points up to 52.3 per cent at the beginning of week 27. In the end-user market there is an alert of higher prices for customers with a standard variable contract for the next two weeks. From week 27 to week 29 the average price from the leading suppliers in 28 net areas increased with 0.004 NOK/kWh to with 0.346 NOK/kWh. The average for the corresponding contract from the 15 reasonable national power producers will in week 29 be 0.334 NOK/kWh. ------------------------------- Contact person at the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate: Marit Lundteigen Fossdal, NVE, tel: +47 2295 9353