Electricity as Infrastructural Power: Mapping the Physical and Social Dimensions of Norway–EU Interdependence

Electricity price spikes are severely affecting the Norway–EU electricity interdependence. Against the background of geopolitical tensions, the European energy crisis and surging integration with the EU electricity market, Norway’s core energy policy has been challenged. Specifically, the unique relationship between the state, natural resources, territory, and the use of the country’s vast hydropower capacity has been jeopardised by tensions inherent within this electricity interdependence. Drawing on the concepts of infrastructural power and the primary institutions of the English School of IR, the article elaborates the “infrastructural power’s governed interdependence framework” to investigate electricity interdependencies as a crucial nexus between cross-border electricity infrastructure and international relations. Bridging energy studies and IR, the framework captures the bureaucratic state responsiveness feedback effect on electricity interdependencies. This is an essential feature of the energy transition, explaining how governments reclaim control over physical and social infrastructure through increased control over cross-border electricity infrastructure. The research highlights how tensions between the primary institutions of environmental stewardship, the market, nationalism, sovereignty, and territoriality have profoundly shaken the Norwegian political landscape. While the EU has opted for market integration and additional investments in interconnectivity to deliver affordable electricity and secure power supplies, Norwegian civil society has forced domestic policymakers to manage electricity infrastructure directly. Therefore, Norway has introduced measures to restrain price fluctuations, constraining market dynamics, while limiting physical interconnections with the European markets. This could potentially destabilise the entire Norway–EU electricity interdependence.