Hafslund Vekst
A word from the Managing Director
Hafslund Vekst AS was established as a separate company in September 2022. As the name suggests, we endeavour to create growth. We have high ambitions of contributing to a world in balance, with innovative work that accelerates the energy transition and contributes towards creating an even better future.
The energy crisis in Europe has highlighted the importance of our work. We need to find the long-term solutions that provide balance in a renewable energy system, and reduce emissions without compromising nature and the environment. At the same time, we will create good customer experiences that get the population involved in the energy transition. These are challenging and engaging issues that we are proud to work on. We have established several exciting partnerships and companies that we strongly believe will succeed in the future.
I am fortunate to be able to lead a group of employees with so much energy, who share knowledge and get the best out of each other. We grew significantly during 2022 and into 2023, and went from having 30 to almost 40 employees at the end of March. Hafslund Vekst facilitates an entrepreneurial mentality within a safe environment, and our culture welcomes new ideas. I am proud of the team we have assembled and everything we have accomplished over the past year. I now look forward to the continuation of this work and to us contributing to further growth in 2023.
Martin Sleire Lundby
Description of the business area
Hafslund Vekst is working on established and new growth initiatives within the renewable value chain. The company finds new business opportunities associated with electrification, sustainability and new production and storage of renewable energy with alternative technologies.
Hafslund Vekst also has an important task in managing some of Hafslund’s largest ownership interests, including ownership in Eidsiva Energi AS and Fredrikstad Energi AS, and the company has a dedicated group for investments and active ownership follow-up. Hafslund Vekst has, within a short period of time, become a medium-sized growth company with an extensive portfolio that includes offshore wind, solar power, electric vehicle charging, energy saving, business development, consulting and venture capital. Hafslund Vekst’s various initiatives are described below:
New renewable energy production
An important initiative for Hafslund Vekst is to develop new renewable energy, and the company has ongoing projects within offshore wind and large-scale solar energy. The company will contribute strong renewable growth through solar and wind power, while also setting ambitious goals and measures for protecting nature. Hafslund Vekst is technology-neutral and assesses projects throughout the entire Nordic region.
Within offshore wind, Hafslund Vekst is one of three partners in the company Blåvinge, together with Fred. Olsen Seawind and Ørsted. Blåvinge is a long-term partnership for offshore wind in Norway, and has the goal of developing both fixed and floating offshore wind. Blåvinge is primarily working on preparations to compete for licences at Utsira Nord and Sørlige Nordsjø II. In 2022, Blåvinge entered into important agreements with Norwegian suppliers, such as the Rosenberg Worley shipyard in Stavanger and the Arendal-based company APL, which works with anchoring of floating offshore structures, and the cable manufacturer Nexans in Halden. By bringing together leading national players in the early phase, Blåvinge endeavours to find the best solutions, power innovation and reduce costs for floating offshore wind.
Hafslund Vekst has already started with lake wind in Sweden, and in 2022 the company acquired a stake in the Stenkalles Grund wind project in Lake Vänern. Hafslund Vekst owns the project together with the renewable energy company Cloudberry Clean Energy. For Hafslund, this is both the first wind power project that is not onshore and the first energy development project outside of Norway. The project has a licence for developing 100 MW of wind capacity and aims to be operational in 2026.
In autumn 2022, Hafslund Vekst established a new solar power company, Hafslund Magnora Sol AS, in Norway, together with the investment company Magnora ASA and the Swedish solar park developer Helios AB. The new solar power company has the ambition of developing 1,000 MW of solar power by 2027 and will develop solar power projects until they are ready for construction. Hafslund Vekst also has a first right to purchase the projects and has also invested NOK 100 million in Magnora ASA, which has provided an ownership interest of about seven per cent and makes Hafslund Vekst the largest single investor.
Business development, electrification solutions and distributed energy
The business developers at Hafslund Vekst are working to find good ideas that can be further developed into specific initiatives and ventures. When a concept is ready to be further developed, this often takes place through the company Hafslund Ny Energi AS, which is owned by Hafslund (65 per cent) and Eidsiva Energi (35 per cent). The charging company Elaway AS and the solar panel company Solway AS are examples of commercialised initiatives which originated from Hafslund Ny Energi.
The charging company Elaway builds and operates infrastructure for charging electric vehicles in condominiums and housing cooperatives. Elaway’s vision is to become the largest charging operator for this customer group in Europe, and the company has established itself in both Sweden and Germany. In Norway, Elaway now has close to 50,000 parking spaces in its portfolio, and the goal is to be connected to 100,000 parking spaces by 2025. The company is owned by Hafslund Ny Energi together with Eviny.
Solway was established by Hafslund Ny Energi and OBOS in 2022 and is a company that will supply solar and other energy solutions to commercial buildings and housing companies. Solway will accelerate the development of the enormous potential for clean and locally-sourced electricity on Norwegian roofs and facades. The first facilities will be installed in early 2023 and the long-term ambition is for Solway to supply photovoltaic systems to 10,000 apartments and commercial buildings each year.
Hafslund Ny Energi also has its own advisory group, Hafslund Rådgivning, which specialises in emission-free transport and infrastructure, innovative energy systems, zero-emission construction sites, power grids and policy instruments for the green transition. Customers include private and public actors, such as Posten Norge, Unibuss, Mester Grønn, Vedal, Port of Flåm, Port of Borg, Port of Oslo, and Fredrikstad municipality.
Investments and ventures
In order to be able to solve the challenges of the future, it is essential to work together with others and to seek expertise and experience that Hafslund Vekst itself does not possess. For Hafslund Vekst, partnerships are an important instrument for gaining access to complementary expertise, reducing risk and enabling value-creating innovation across the renewable value chain.
Hafslund Vekst has its own investment group that evaluates opportunities for acquisitions and mergers that can contribute towards realising Hafslund’s strategy and goal of value creation. Hafslund has been involved in a number of transactions in recent years, and the Group derives major benefit from having solid in-house investment expertise. 2022 was characterised by the major acquisition of majority ownership in Hafslund Oslo Celsio, although there were also smaller investments, such as the partnership with the developer company Magnora.
Hafslund Vekst also has a dedicated venture capital group that is continually looking for good and innovative investments. The goal is for the venture portfolio to consist of innovative start-up and growth companies with a strong technology component and a green electrification agenda for which Hafslund can contribute with value-added ownership. At the end of 2022, the portfolio included the following companies:
- Heimdall Power: Solutions that use artificial intelligence for monitoring and maintaining the high-voltage grid.
- Smartwatt: Control systems based on artificial intelligence for optimising energy consumption.
- Ducky: Digital tool for visualising and reducing the population’s carbon footprint.
- Birdsview: Smart solutions for monitoring and maintaining critical infrastructure, such as power and telephone poles.
- Overeasy Solar: Innovative solar panel modules specially adapted to the needs of green and flat roof areas.
Ownership in Eidsiva Energi and Fredrikstad Energi
Hafslund Vekst has a significant ownership interest in grid operations, district heating and broadband as the largest owner of Eidsiva Energi with a 50 per cent stake. Eidsiva Energi owns 100 per cent of Elvia, which is Norway’s largest grid company with about 970,000 customers. Elvia builds, operates, maintains and renews the power grid in Innlandet, Viken and Oslo. Eidsiva Energi also owns Eidsiva Bioenergi, which is Norway’s third largest supplier of district heating and supplies approximately 460 GWh of district heating via its own infrastructure to the private and corporate markets in Innlandet. The company also owns Eidsiva Bredbånd, which supplies fibre and broadband to 90,000 customers, primarily in Innlandet. Hafslund Vekst also has a 49 per cent ownership interest in Fredrikstad Energi, which owns Norgesnett. Fredrikstad Energi builds, operates, maintains and renews the power grid for more than 100,000 customers in seven municipalities in Eastern and Western Norway.
Statement of value creation
Hafslund Vekst has the goal of achieving long-term renewable value creation. Value creation will be achieved by managing the industrial ownership of the company and through new growth initiatives. In this context, initiatives refers to companies and projects that Hafslund Vekst has invested in, or has started up itself or together with partners.
The common feature of all Hafslund Vekst’s initiatives is that the objective is to be necessary pieces in the energy system of the future and contribute to a world in balance, with renewable energy. In practical terms, this means that the company’s initiatives are, and must be, a contribution towards solving the climate problem in a financially viable manner, without significantly compromising other sustainability dimensions such as nature, biodiversity and society. In order to solve the challenges and create targeted growth, Hafslund Vekst invests in an extensive portfolio of initiatives with different business models and risks, and investments are made in several parts of the renewable value chain. This ensures that Hafslund Vekst has a well-diversified portfolio of initiatives to reduce overall risk exposure.
Hafslund Vekst’s portfolio of companies and projects has different capital and knowledge requirements. They are at different stages of their development cycle and will operate in markets that may be both known and thus far unknown to Hafslund Vekst. Common to most new initiatives is that they are in a relatively early phase of their commercialisation process. This entails that the costs and investments are higher than the earnings, and that positive results and cash flow will be somewhat deferred into the future.
Hafslund Vekst’s total operating revenues for 2022 amounted to NOK 5 million (NOK 8 million), primarily related to the sale of advisory services at Hafslund Rådgivning. The operating profit (EBIT) of NOK 552 million (NOK -52 million) is an increase of NOK 604 million from the previous year. The increase was primarily linked to an increase in the share of the profit from Eidsiva Energi and Fredrikstad Energi, which added NOK 614 million (NOK -16 million) to Hafslund Vekst’s result. The results for both of these companies were largely characterised by high costs for network losses associated with grid operations in 2021, but the results improved in 2022 due to high bottleneck revenues towards the end of the year. Profit after tax was NOK 372 million (NOK – 215 million).
| NOK million | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Operating expenses | 5 | 8 |
| Payroll and other personnel costs | -23 | -16 |
| Other operating expenses | -18 | -15 |
| Results from associates and joint ventures | 588 | -29 |
| EBITDA | 552 | -51 |
| Depreciation, amortisation and write-downs | - | -1 |
| Operating profit/loss (EBIT) | 552 | -52 |
| Net financial expenses | -240 | -155 |
| Profit before tax | 312 | -207 |
| Tax expense | 60 | -8 |
| Profit after tax | 372 | -215 |
Hafslund Eco Vannkraft
The Norwegian hydropower system has normal annual production of 138 TWh and total output capacity of 33 GW. In a normal year, hydropower production accounts for approximately 90 per cent of Norway’s total power production. Most of the reservoirs in Norway were constructed before 1990, although upgrades and expansions of the power plants have increased the ability to utilise these.
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