Energy warning 'price could increase 100 times' as Norway mulls cutting UK supply

Engery prices could "increase 100 times" as Norway mulls cutting its essential energy supply to the UK.

Since the energy crisis, tensions have grown as Norweigan residents experienced increased energy rates and volatile prices, while its outsourced energy allows other countries' prices to remain lower.

Political leaders have reportedly thought about "cutting the cables", which means UK prices "would certainly increase".

Tom Edwards, from energy consultancy Cornwall Insight, said: “If we weren’t able to access it, it would certainly increase prices in Great Britain. It would get tight.

"The risk would be that prices would spike during cold, dark, still evenings at close to £6,000 a megawatt hour, which is 100 times the normal.”

The issue was particularly apparent on January 8 during peak hours of 5.30pm to 6pm, when the UK reportedly came "really close" to a "cascading blackout" which “would have been a disaster”, according to Kathryn Porter of consultancy Watt Logic.

Norway has previously enjoyed relatively low energy prices due to its abundance of natural energy from its dams, waterfalls and rivers, and it has long outsourced energy to countries like Britain and Germany.

However since the energy crisis, Norway’s coalition broke apart and the leader of the Centre Party Trygve Slagsvold Vedum declared "enough is enough" when he exited government last month, leaving the Labour Party in charge until elections in September.

Vedum said: “We are doing this to change Norwegian electricity policy and create a dynamic where we can take steps that can give us lower and stable electricity prices in Norway and so we don’t give away more power to the EU.”

Rogaland, a region in Norway where a 450-mile interconnector to the UK resurfaces, pays the country's highest electricity prices.

MP for the left leaning Red Party which represents the area, Mímir Kristjánsson, said: “Many people are really angry. They feel they have been deceived. It’s about more than money. People just see the situation as really wrong.”

“A lot of the political parties in Norway are thinking of cutting the cables,” says Eimund Nygaard, the chief executive of power and telecom firm Lyse in Stavanger. “The nationalism we see on this is quite scary.”

The interconnector running under the seabed from Norway to the UK, a joint investment from both countries, can power 1.4 million homes and carry 1.4 gigawatts (GW) of electricity between the countries. The UK has similar links to Denmark, France and Belgium.

Shivam Malhotra, an analyst from consultancy LCP, says the UK has built its interconnection over the last few years, with about 10 gigawatts compared to two and a half in 2010.

Malhotra said: “The interconnection in Great Britain is a necessity at this point. We’ve seen that recently over the very tight days in winter. In those periods where there is very little wind, it is very useful for us."