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NORD STREAM

Gas still leaking from Nord Stream 2: Swedish Coast Guard

Sweden's coast guard said on Monday it could no longer see any leaks from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in the Baltic Sea, but a smaller leak from Nord Stream 2 was still visible.

Published: 3 October 2022 20:37 CEST
Gas still leaking from Nord Stream 2: Swedish Coast Guard
One of the Swedish Coast Guard's planes. Photo: Swedish Coast Guard

“The larger leak is now no longer visible on the surface while the smaller one instead has increased slightly,” the coast guard said in a statement.

The observations were made during an overflight on Monday at around 8am of the two pipelines suspected to have been damaged in an act of sabotage, it added.

“At that time, the smaller leak was approximately 30 metres in diameter,” the coast guard said.

A spokesman for the operator of the Nord Stream pipelines, Nord Stream AG, said on Saturday that the leaking from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline had stopped because an equilibrium had been reached between the gas and water pressure.

Gazprom, which owns 51 percent of the pipeline project, said Monday “it was working to lower the pressure in the B line of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline” by pumping out the natural gas of the pipe, so that the pipeline could be examined safely.

Both Nord Stream 1 and 2 are made up of two lines and both leaks on Nord Stream 2 were on the A line.

The Russian energy giant added that it did not rule out the possibility that the Nord Stream 2 B pipeline could still be used to deliver gas.

“If the decision is taken to start deliveries via the Nord Stream 2 B-line, natural gas will be pumped into the pipeline after the integrity of the system has been checked and the supervisory authorities have confirmed such a possibility,” Gazprom said in a statement on its Telegram channel.

Built in parallel to the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, Nord Stream 2 was intended to double the capacity for Russian gas imports to Germany. But Berlin blocked the opening of the newly-completed Nord Stream 2 in the days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

All of the leaks, which were discovered on Monday last week, are in the Baltic Sea off the Danish island of Bornholm. Both Washington and Moscow have denied responsibility.

Danish authorities had estimated that all the gas trapped in the pipelines would have escaped by Sunday. Two of the leaks are located in the Swedish exclusive economic zone, and the two others in the Danish one.

The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which connect Russia to Germany, have been at the centre of geopolitical tensions as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

While the pipelines are not currently in operation, they both still contained gas before they fell victim to apparent sabotage.

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ENERGY

Danish electricity company announces ‘record negative prices’ after sunny May

A high number of sunny days in May gave Danish energy company Norlys a record number of hours in which its energy prices were negative, the company said on Monday.

Published: 3 June 2024 09:45 CEST
Danish electricity company announces 'record negative prices' after sunny May

Last month saw a total of 75 and 59 hours of ‘negative’ electricity prices in the western and eastern halves of Denmark respectively, Norlys said in a press release.

Unfortunately, a ‘negative’ price doesn’t mean you will be paid for switching the lights on, because taxes and transport costs must still be added to the base price.

Specifically, the total price paid by customers can include (in addition to the base rate) state tariffs, subscriptions, one-off charges, VAT and payments to the local energy grid.

Tariffs, like the cost of raw electricity, can also fluctuate from hour to hour. This depends on the tariff model used by individual companies.

But lower electricity prices can be taken advantage of by setting timers on thirsty appliances like dishwashers and tumble dryers and running them at these times. This can include off-peak times of the day when there is less demand for power, as well as fluctuations related to production.

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The total of 134 hours across Denmark in which customers receive a discount due to the negative ‘raw’ energy price is a record for a single month, Norlys said.

“We know that many of our customers follow electricity prices closely and the trend in May also underlines that there is a very good reason for this,” Norlys director for energy sales Mads Brøgger said in the statement.

“It’s good for your wallet and the green transition alike if you can plan your consumption for the hours in which there is a lot of sun and wind, making the electricity price low,” he said.

READ ALSO: How an app function can help cut your Danish electricity bill

May’s high frequency of negative base electricity rates can be attributed to the pleasant spring weather, which provided both wind and sun to the energy system in Denmark.

Meanwhile, Denmark’s electricity infrastructure has become more closely connected to other parts of Europe, notably Germany and The Netherlands. Both countries have increased their solar power capacity in recent years.

“It benefits us to have many sunshine hours, as was the case in May. Meanwhile, energy consumption was low in May because it was warm enough not to need electricity for heating, but not hot enough to need it for cooling. So there was a sweet spot in many ways,” Brøgger said.

The trend of low electricity prices has so far continued into June, with negative base rates occurring on Sunday for a number of hours in both the eastern and western parts of the country.

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