Norway to help ease pain of rocketing power prices on businesses

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OSLO — Norway’s government on Friday presented a long-awaited package of loans and subsidies to help curb the impact of sky-high power prices for businesses, the latest move by a European country to help ease the energy crunch.

Governments across the region have been racing to present measures to protect consumers and industry from more expensive energy bills.

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The subsidy scheme will cover companies whose power costs exceeded 3% of revenues in the first half of 2022, costing in total 3 billion Norwegian crowns ($292.50 million), Industry Minister Jan Christian Vestre told a news conference.

“On the one hand, we must avoid creating further pressure on the Norwegian economy, while at the same time we want to give electricity-intensive companies help to adapt,” Vestre said.

The subsidy presented by the center-left government will compensate 25% of power rates above a 0.70 Norwegian crown per kilowatt hour threshold and would be capped at 3.5 million crowns per company.

In addition, companies can borrow up to 50 million crowns, he said. ($1 = 10.2565 Norwegian crowns)

(Reporting by Nora Buli and Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche)