Lysaker, 05 July 2006 Nord Pool has received the following information from the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE): Small amounts of precipitation and higher prices in week 26 Small amounts of precipitation and inflow together with low reservoir levels contributed to a further price increase at the Nordic electricity exchange. The precipitation has been 35 percent below normal over the last five weeks and the derogation is more than 3 TWh or about the level of consumption during a cold winter week. Due to little snow in the mountains, the inflow to the reservoir is even less than the precipitation derogation implies. In week 26 the inflow was 2.8 TWh or 55 percent below normal. The prices at the Nordic electricity exchange have been increasing for 8 consecutive weeks. In week 26 the prices in southern Norway was 75 percent higher than a year ago when inflow and reservoir levels were higher. The reservoir levels in Norway increased by 1.1 percentage points last week. The reservoir levels are 57.4 percent and this is 10.1 percentage points below the median value for the week. The Swedish reservoir levels increased by 1.3 percentage points to 62.7 percent. This is 9.3 percentage points below normal. ------------------------------- Contact person at the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate: Tor Arnt Johnsen, NVE, tel: +47 2295 9149 Gunn Oland, NVE, tel: +47 2295 9222