IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2020 - 28

The Hydropower
System in Norway

Existing Interconnector
Interconnector Planned or
Under Construction

Hydropower has been important
to Norway from its early stages of
Sweden
electrification. Norway's first hydroVyborg
Back to Back
power station, built by the company
1,400 MW
Laugstol Brug near the small town of
Finland
Skien, began operations in 1885 with
Estlink 1/2
Fenno-Skan 1/2
NorthConnect
1,000 MW
dc generation equipment supplied by
1,350 MW
1,400 MW
Norway
Heyerdahl & Company. In 1890, an
Skagerrak 1-4
Estonia
1,700 MW
early electric streetlight system was
Russia
NSL
supplied from a local hydropower
1,400 MW
KontiSkan 1/2
740
MW
station in one of the world's northernNorNed
700 MW
NordBalt
most towns, Hammerfest. In 1891, a
Latvia
NordLink
Ireland
700 MW
1,400 MW
Dnmark Storebælt
local hydropower station gave the
600 MW
SwePol
Lithuania
600 MW
capital, Kristiania (now Oslo), elecUnited VikingLink
Baltic Cable
1,400 MW
tric streetlights as well. Other early
Kingdom
600 MW
installations included the 1899 HamBielorus
Netherlands
meren power station in Maridalen,
Hansa
Poland
a two-phase, 5,000-V ac facility;
PowerBridge
Belgium
Germany 700 MW
another near Kykkelsrud, a threephase, 5,000-V ac facility opened in
1904; and the Norsk Hydro power
figure 1. The HVdc links connecting the Nordic countries to other areas. NSL: North
station of 1911 in Rjukan, a threeSea Link
phase 11,000-V ac facility. These
hydro systems used the country's
natural resources; therefore, early in their development, concestable 1. The Norwegian power generation capacity,
sion laws that regulated their utilization were established. These
according to Statistics Norway.
laws have been important for the structured development of the
Total capacity (MW)
35,348
power industry in Norway.
It was important to develop hydropower potential to enable
Hydropower
32,530
the
industrialization of Norway after the Second World War.
Wind power
1,710
The majority of the largest power stations in Norway were conThermal power
1,108
structed from the beginning of the 1950s until the end of 1980s.
Several of these hydropower schemes were built to supply smeltto neighboring countries and submarine high-voltage dc ing industries that were being developed near the power stations.
After this period, for more than a decade, there was very little new
(HVdc) links to continental Europe (Figure 1).
Norway's hydropower resources operate in synergy with generating capacity. Moving into the 2000s, however, new renewwind and solar assets in continental Europe. During times able energy generation solutions came into the market, including
of high wind and solar production, Norway can import inex- small-scale hydro and wind, most without reservoirs.
The installed generation capacity in the Norwegian power
pensive renewable electricity from abroad, thereby saving
water in its reservoirs. During times of low wind and solar system at the beginning of 2019 is provided in Table 1. The
production, Norway can use the stored water to export power peak load in the Norwegian power system is 24,485 MW.
at higher prices. In this way, excess wind and solar produc- The energy balance for the country for the years 2017-2019
is shown in Table 2. The variation in hydropower production,
tion can be stored and used later.

table 2. The Norwegian energy balance (GWh), according to Statistics Norway.

Year

Total Production

Hydropower
Production

Wind Power
Production

Thermal Power
Production

Import

Export

Gross
Consumption

2017

149,402

143,112

2,854

3,436

6,112

21,276

134,238

2018

147,057

139,704

3,877

3,476

8,340

18,489

136,908

2019

134,635

125,796

5,536

3,302

12,353

12,309

134,679

ieee power & energy magazine

september/october 2020

IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2020