Norway is right to preserve hydropower water supply – German chancellor

OSLO (Reuters) – Norway is right to preserve water in its hydroelectric dams in order to secure the country’s power supply, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said while on a visit to Oslo on Monday.

Norway plans to more tightly regulate its power production and could ultimately limit exports to prevent hydroelectric reservoirs from running out of water in the coming winter, the government has said.

“I very much understand the Norwegian decision making processes, they have to secure electricity production with water and this is a very good job they are doing for the whole of Europe and for Norway,” Scholz told at a news conference.

“They must make sure that there will always be enough water for electricity production in Norway.”

The Nordic country last year inaugurated its first direct power link with Germany, the 1.4 gigawatt NordLink cable.

It also opened a new 1.4 GW link with Britain and connections with Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands have been in operation for many years.

High demand and low precipitation have resulted in low water levels in Norway’s hydropower reservoirs, pushing domestic electricity prices to record highs and prompting some politicians to call for a halt to exports.

(Reporting by Nora Buli and Nerijus Adomaitis, editing by Terje Solsvik)