Norwegian curves

On failing projects, travel as escape, aggregate curves, faster activations, fixed prices, POW bans, more offshore gas blocks

The debates around the German market are becoming a bit tedious. Working groups, volumes of studies… A zonal split, efficiency or liquidity? Alternatives if not. Grid fees for flexible assets, a verdict, perhaps, later? Grid access application congestion and processing fees.

Following all this back-and-forth is like following the minutiae of a project that started with gusto, but is now missing its targets and losing its way. With a project like that you need to ask some fundamental questions, get back to the basics, inject fresh energy.

I don’t have a taste for regulatory tea-leaves, so I propose we go on an indefinitely long tour of energy markets around the world.

You can’t claim to be a lover of say wine or tea, I think, if you’re not curious about trying different kinds from different places. The same should hold for a taste in energy markets. Let’s get out more.

As with any journey, the question is where to start. For us, the answer is simple: Norway. We crossed the border last week, thinking about grid connections and market linkage, and ‘Dunkelflaute contagion’ and contrasting the vision of a global grid to difficulties in converging on a rulebook for intra-European connectivity.

Norway to Texas via Yunnan, I.

Our armchair travel will proceed as follows:

• Exploration following the theme of global grid connection,

• Country-specific reflections: ‘Short Market Notes’ become ‘Country Market Notes.’