Statnett fined twice for late NordLink disclosures (RME)

Authority

Norwegian Energy Regulatory Authority (RME) (RME), Norway

Published

12 December 2025

Participants

Statnett SF

Commodity

Electricity

Market

NordLink interconnector between NO2 and Germany

Conduct period

November 2020 to October 2021 (ramping disclosures); 6 September 2023 (outage disclosure)

REMIT equivalent

Article 4 (Disclosure of inside information)

Legal basis

Norwegian NEM regulation, chapter 5 (mirrors REMIT Article 4), and Article 10 of the Transparency Regulation

Type of conduct

Late disclosure of inside information

Penalty

NOK 500,000 (2023) and NOK 1,500,000 (2025)

Status

Both decisions allow appeal to the Energy Appeals Board within three weeks of receipt

RME's decision of 29 June 2023 concerned NordLink's initial limit of 300 MW per hour, half the normal Nordic HVDC ramping limit. RME identified three disclosure failures: information on Statnett's website from November 2020 was not published on the NUCS market platform until 10 February 2021; a March update reached its mailing service three days before NUCS; and a decision taken in April to extend the restriction was not communicated until October, after the earlier message expired in June.

Statnett accepted shortcomings but disputed whether the information was price-sensitive inside information. It argued that ramping restrictions had modest effects and did not materially affect water values. RME held that they could change hourly flows and price expectations, including for participants who did not trade on water values. It also rejected the assumption that the market should simply continue using the last published limit. Its decision applied NEM section 5-3 and Article 11(3) of the Transparency Regulation, requiring updated ramping information.

RME's decision of 10 December 2025 concerned an outage at 04:39 on 6 September 2023 that reduced NordLink's capacity from 1,444 MW to 685 MW in both directions. Statnett prepared a NUCS message but did not publish it until 10:39. An internal message at 05:59 incorrectly indicated that publication had happened. Statnett cited heavy workload after another outage in Oesterdalen and explained that operators did not routinely check each other's tasks.

RME found breaches of NEM section 5-3 and Article 10 of the Transparency Regulation. It held that the outage information was precise and likely to influence the balancing markets and next day's auction. It rejected workload as justification: there had been about 40 minutes before the second incident, and staffing and publication checks were within Statnett's control. RME applied the one-hour reporting deadline and found no justification for later inside-information disclosure.

For the 2023 fine, RME weighed repeated disclosure failures, inadequate routines and prevention against absence of deliberate conduct, substantial gain or a previous sanction for the same type of breach. It required publication on a generally known platform before Statnett's website or mailing service. Informing RME separately did not discharge the market-disclosure obligation.

In 2025 RME withdrew its proposed insider-trading finding after Statnett's response. It accepted that transactions and information-sharing solely for secure system operation fell within the TSO exception, even after an hour without publication. That exception did not remove the disclosure breach. RME set NOK 1.5 million, considering previous disclosure decisions and preventable control failures, while mitigating for no deliberate pursuit of company interests. It could not quantify the economic effects. Both decisions allowed appeal to the Energy Appeals Board within three weeks of receipt.

The decisions require disclosure controls that confirm actual publication and update expiring messages. RME distinguishes emergency system-operation duties from the duty to inform all market participants promptly through the proper platform.

• RME, Statnett - Vedtak om overtredelsesgebyr, 10 December 2025 (Decision, in Norwegian)
• RME, Statnett - Vedtak om rampingrestriksjoner paa NordLink, 29 June 2023 (Decision, in Norwegian)
• RME, Statnett har brutt plikten til aa publisere innsideinformasjon, 12 December 2025 (Press release, in Norwegian)
• RME, RME gir Statnett overtredelsesgebyr for mangelfull offentliggjoering av innsideinformasjon, 29 June 2023 (Press release, in Norwegian)

Sources read on 27 October 2026. This page restates what the authority published and adds no finding of its own. A decision under appeal is not final, and its status may have changed since: check the source before relying on it.

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