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NORD STREAM

Russia summons German, Swedish and Danish envoys over Nord Stream

Russia on Thursday summoned the envoys of Germany, Sweden and Denmark over Moscow's frustration with the lack of progress on probes into the sabotaged Nord Stream gas pipelines.

Published: 25 May 2023 17:06 CEST
Russia summons German, Swedish and Danish envoys over Nord Stream
Gas escaping from the damaged Nord Stream pipeline on September 27th 2022. File photo: Danish Armed Forces

Built to carry Russian gas to Germany, the pipelines in the Baltic Sea were ruptured by subsea explosives months after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February, 2022.

Western countries have blamed the explosions under the Baltic Sea last September on Russia, but the Kremlin has accused the West of sabotage.

German, Swedish and Danish authorities have been investigating the blasts that sparked four leaks.

On Thursday, the Russian foreign ministry said it summoned the envoys and made an official diplomatic protest over “a complete lack of results of the national investigations allegedly carried out by the authorities of these countries”.

Moscow decried the three EU nations for failing to “ensure the transparency” of the investigations and insisted that Russia should be involved in the probes.

The Russian foreign ministry also pointed to the three countries’ “lack of interest” in establishing the truth.

“They are clearly dragging their heels and trying to conceal the traces and the true perpetrators of the crime,” the ministry said in a statement.

In March, the UN Security Council rejected a Moscow-drafted resolution calling for an independent inquiry into the 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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