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Norwegian politiciansEUYour browser does not support the element. have had a shock. Wholesale power prices have been spiking, as wind-powered neighbours rush to import Norwegian electricity when the normally blustery North Sea turns calm. The big political parties are suddenly souring on the idea that Norway should export ever more of its abundant hydropower. Several want some of the cables carrying electricity abroad to be switched off. The Progress Party, which is leading in the polls, also wants to increase already generous subsidies for household bills. One way or another, in the name of reducing domestic prices, exports seem likely to be curbed after elections later this year.Norway would be shooting—or zapping—itself in the foot. Its transmission links to nearby countries are good for it, Europe and the planet. International cables make electricity cheaper, greener and more reliable. Around the world, less than 3% of all power crosses a border. Some countries, such as Bangladesh and Singapore, are . Most others should do the same.Connecting up grids brings a host of benefits. Countries need fewer largely redundant power plants that are used only when demand peaks or when other generation goes offline. The top-up to supply can come down a cable instead. This makes it cheaper to generate electricity at both ends of the wire. Extra connections are especially helpful for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. Grids with lots of solar or wind power see big fluctuations in generation and prices, depending on the weather. If power can be exported when it’s abundant, instead of being wasted, investment in renewables becomes more attractive. If the wind dies, power can come from far off, where it is still blowing.Savings are often to be had at one end of the cable or the other, depending on which market has higher prices at any given moment. Power can flow from where it is cheap to where it is costlier, lowering prices overall.True, this means that the price rises in the cheaper market, which is the source of the dismay in Norway. But Norwegians are forgetting that domestically produced power is not always cheaper. Whenever the current in the cables flows towards them, it helps reduce high prices. And even though Norway exports more power than it imports, that is fantastic for domestic energy producers. Norway’s state-owned power firms have been raking it in, which is one of the reasons the government can afford to subsidise household prices.Governments may worry that the country at the other end will cut the power or that the cables will be sabotaged, as a subsea communications link off Taiwan may have been this month. And so they might—but the best defence is to have lots of cables to many countries. Diversifying sources of supply multiplies the economic benefits while reducing dependence on each supplier, and hence their leverage.Indeed, international cables help protect against the unpredictable. Although Britain is typically a big power importer, it became an exporter when high natural-gas prices crimped power generation in the after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. France is usually a big exporter, but when many of its nuclear plants were closed for maintenance, it needed imports. Who knows—water levels may someday sink low enough in Norway’s reservoirs that it will want more cables, not fewer.
