World Bank Document
PrivateP UBLIC POLICYsector FOR THE Note No. 171 January 1999 Public Disclosure Authorized International Power Trade— The Nordic Power Pool Lennart Carlsson Scandinavia, where countries have traded power Differences in generation mix largely explain the for decades, has the world’s most developed establishment of interconnections in Scandinavia. international market for electric power. Recently Norway relies entirely on hydro, while Denmark the trading system has changed dramatically, generates all power in thermal plants, mainly from moving from the old model of cooperation imported coal. Sweden has a mix of about half among the leading vertically integrated utilities hydro and half nuclear generation, and Finland in each country, under the Nordel agreement, a mix of hydro (25 percent), conventional ther- to competitive market rules. A common power mal (45 percent), and nuclear (30 percent) plants. Public Disclosure Authorized market for Norway and Sweden, Nord Pool, was The power market is fairly large: together, the established in 1996, and Finland joined in June four countries consume about 360 terawatt-hours 1998 (figure 1). This Note examines why Nord (TWh) a year, surpassing the U.K. market. The Pool came into being, what conditions facili- differences in generation structure have made it tated its development, and what lessons it pro- economically attractive to trade power, allowing vides for World Bank client countries. the countries to optimize production (figure 2). FIGURE 1 THE NORD POOL POWER FIGURE 2 POWER GENERATION MARKET STRUCTURE IN THE NORDIC COUNTRIES Gas turbines Production cost Public Disclosure Authorized Condensing, oil Condensing, coal Nord Pool Industrial back pressure Combined heat and power production Nuclear power Submarine cables Hydropower (average) 100 200 300 400 TWh Public Disclosure Authorized Consumption Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish players trade on equal terms.
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