Renewable energy production comes from reservoir-fed hydropower plants, small-scale hydropower plants and wind power. The company operates the power distribution grid in Narvik, Ballangen and north Tysfjord, as well as Veggen in the municipality of Evenes.

The Group’s history can be traced back to 1913, when the first hydropower plant was commissioned at Håkvikdalen in Narvik. Throughout its history the Group has primarily been in public ownership. For a few years in the 2000s, the Danish energy company Energi E2 (which later became Dong Energy) came on board as an owner. The Danish owner’s expertise resulted in a focus on wind power. In 2016, the Swedish company Jämtkraft acquired a stake in the parent company.

To help achieve new national targets for the expansion of renewable energy production in the period leading up to 2020, investments were made in wind power (Nygårdsfjellet wind farm in two stages) and several small-scale hydropower plants, primarily in Troms and Nordland, but also further south in Norway.

In 2013, the Group celebrated its centenary – and looked forward to a new era. With several years of low and falling power prices forecast, a new strategy was drawn up to make the company’s revenues less dependent on the price of electricity.

The provision of third-party operator services to power plant owners wishing to outsource the staffing and day-to-day running of their power plants therefore became a new focus area. Together with an emphasis on efficient operations and the company’s capital structure, this provided a platform for further solid growth. 

As a result of the new strategy, the small-scale hydropower plants and the Nygårdsfjellet wind farm were sold, with Nordkraft signing agreements to operate the power plants for the new owners. Although the wind power projects have also been sold, Nordkraft is undertaking the construction work on behalf of the new owners and will operate the completed wind farms.

On 1 January 2018, Nordkraft Nett took over the power distribution grid in Ballangen and the northern part of Tysfjord. As part of the deal, the company also acquired a further 21 employees, a separate division in Ballangen and agreements to operate and construct power plants for Ballangen Energi. On the same date, Kraftinor merged with SKS Kraftsalg to form Polar Kraft, with the objective of becoming the largest electricity supplier in Northern Norway. Nordkraft holds a 33 per cent stake in the merged company.

Thanks to these measures, the stream of stable revenues from operating services, the construction of power plants for third parties and power distribution activities increased.

The Group also launched a number of new focus areas in 2018. In partnership with content providers, fibre-optic networks were installed in large parts of Narvik. Focusing on infrastructure and the establishment of solid framework conditions, work also started locally to survey and prepare sites for power-intensive business activities such as data processing centres.