Lysaker, 13 January 2010 Nord Pool has received the following information from the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE): High power prices and record high Norwegian electricity consumption Cold weather across the country led to a record high power consumption last week. Between 09 and 10 o'clock 6 January, the consumption in Norway was 23 994 MWh. The power consumption has never been higher. Last record was set on 5 February, 2001. In week 1 the consumption was 3 624 GWh. This is 352 GWh or 10.7 percent higher than last record, which was from the week before. The weather has been cold also in the rest of the Nordic area, and the demand for electric power is high. At the same time has the Swedish nuclear power plants been running at reduced capacity, and the transfer capacity between some of the elspot areas has been reduced due to the high load in the grid. Some hours last week, the power prices piked at 8.2 NOK/kWh in Sweden, Finland, Zealand, Mid and North Norway. The high power production and low inflow lately, has led to reservoir levels below normal. At the end of week 1, the filling in the Norwegian reservoirs were 61.0 percent. This is 8.8 percentage points below the median level for the week. The reservoir level decreased with 3.5 percentage points throughout the week. http://www.statnett.no Prognosis from Statnett>> ------------------------------- Contact person at the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate: Marit L. Fossdal, NVE, phone: +47 2295 9353 Tor Arnt Johnsen, NVE, phone: +47 9302 4238