Report on Norway Agreements

12-06-2003

Report no. 12/2002

The Norway Agreement is a commercial agreement regarding the exchange of electricity between Elsam in Denmark and Statkraft in Norway. On account of the liberalisation of the market for electricity, the Norway Agreement was replaced by a new, purely financial exchange of power agreement between Elsam and Statkraft as of 1 January 2001. The Norway Agreement was to be approved by the Norwegian parliament, but Danish legislation did not require approval from the Danish Folketing or the Danish energy authorities. However, both agreements have been subject to consideration from the Danish energy authorities subsequent to complaints and requests for access to documents.

The report about the Norway Agreements deals with the manner in which the authorities handled the agreements and the Minister’s briefing of the Folketing.

The purpose of the report is to cast light on how the involved Danish energy authorities (the Electricity Price Committee (Elprisudvalget), the Danish Energy Regulatory Authority (Energitilsynet), the Danish Competition Authority (Konkurrencestyrelsen) and the Danish Energy Authority (Energistyrelsen)) dealt with the Norway Agreements and to describe and assess whether the Folketing received correct and adequate information from the Minister about the case.