Norway’s state-owned utility Statkraft is eyeing new energy retail and distributed energy models in the UK and has plans to develop data centres, as well as new business models for electric vehicle charging, initially in its home territory.
Posting full year results, the firm outlined a number of initiatives.
Divesting from UK offshore wind, the Statkraft noted innovation initiatives it is undertaking around automated dispatch of hydro resources to displace fossil fuel at times of low renewable generation.
“In the future, Statkraft expects to see changes in the value chain with increasing requirements to remain competitive. Statkraft does not have large end-customer activities, but in the UK and Germany Statkraft is testing business models within electricity retail and distributed energy. Statkraft intends to increase the company’s energy trading activities and explore new business opportunities in a changing European market. Statkraft also aims to develop market operations in selected international markets where it owns assets,” the firm stated.
One such new activity is around data centres, which account for an increasingly significant proportion of global power consumption.
Statkraft said it is looking at developing data centre sites and selling them on to global data centre operators.
The firm, which owns Norwegian EV charging infrastructure company Grønn Kontakt, is also looking at developing new business models in that area.
Meanwhile, the report highlighted the growing cyber security threat faced by utilities.
The company said 198 security incidents were reported over the year. Of these, 156 were IT security incidents “whereof nine were high potential incidents that were detected and blocked at an early stage”.
Higher sales and lower operating costs helped drive a big increase in profits. The firm posted operating profit (earnings before interest and taxes) of £1.56bn, versus £282m the prior year.
See the report here.
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