With the formalities of the Hafslund restructuring completed, Fortum is now the owner of Hafslund’s electricity sales business area. Moreover, Fortum and the City of Oslo jointly own a new company comprising Hafslund’s district heating operations and Norway’s largest waste-to-energy plant at Klemetsrud in Oslo. Fortum is responsible for operating the joint venture. Combined with our current electricity sales, wind power plants and the nationwide Charge&Drive EV charging stations, we are now well established in Norway.
With 2.4 million electricity customers, Fortum and Hafslund Markets together now have the largest electricity customer base in the Nordics. This gives us an excellent foundation to offer our customers reliable and sustainable energy, with new technology and innovative solutions needed for the change towards a cleaner world.
The combination and integration of Hafslund's district heating business and Klemetsrudanlegget (KEA) makes district heating a more competitive and thus more attractive in Oslo - hopefully yielding new growth.
The change of ownership will not bring any immediate changes to the customers of Hafslund, its brand companies, KEA or Fortum. They will continue to receive electricity and heat on the same favourable terms as in the past, and customer service will operate as before.
For the employees and management of these businesses, there will be exciting times ahead as we form a new renewable heating company in Oslo and start building a new strategy for the consumer business. We can also offer our new colleagues opportunities for job rotation and professional development as they are now part of the international Fortum family.
New solutions on the way
The energy sector is undergoing major changes. Digital smart meters, electrical devices connected via the Internet and homes that can sell their surplus energy are just a few examples of technology and solutions that are becoming increasingly common.
“This development will enable us to gradually launch solutions that can provide new ways of meeting the energy needs of our customers. Our growth also means that we can lead the way in terms of research and development. The goal is to help our customers to choose more environmentally friendly solutions,” explains Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO of Fortum.
Working together for a greener Oslo
The partnership between the City of Oslo and Fortum is based on a shared ambition of making Oslo an even greener city. Oslo was recently named European Green Capital 2019.
One good example of this ambition is the ongoing study of a full-scale carbon capture facility at the Klemetsrud plant. KEA is one of the potential candidates for a Norwegian state's CCS pilot. The project team at KEA has done a lot of good work on the project, and we can now bring in Fortum's knowledge of CCS technology as well as our extensive experience of managing large projects. We will be working closely with the City of Oslo to become a preferred partner in the national pilot.
