Landsnet offers the main grid for the transmission of electricity in Iceland, mainly high voltage. Kristjan works as project manager, Gardar is responsible for business relations. It was a little hard to direct the talk into a discussion, but nevertheless some opinions were observable. We also felt that Landsnet operates as a typical service provider.
The electricity market is a deregulated one, there are no private companies, but public control and finance. 80% of all users are so-called intensive customers, the heavy industry, who are using much energy and the same amount constantly. Most of Iceland's electricity is produced by hydro power plants (about 80%), not by geothermal energy. We mentioned the large dam in the East of Iceland, then they told us that most of the protest had come from Reykjavik, not from the ones who are directly affected by the large smelter companies. The debate about the Icelandic environment and its protection has become much stronger since that project.
The landscape is changing by itself
The first aluminium smelter company was set up in the late 1960s by "Alu Suisse". The Icelandic government and industrial companies are doing it in the same way all the time because it's working. Gardar told us that the drilling technology for geothermal power plants is not old, which is explaining the low spread of this kind of power plants. But they are not sure if the use of geothermal energy is the best solution all the time, because there is sulfur inside the smoke, which leads to corrosion, e.g. of the electricity pylons. The power intensive companies consume electricity very constantly all the time, so it's easy to deliver them. Therefore they pay less than normal customers, and there aren't any plans to relieve farmers who run greenhouses too.
Link: Landsnet
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