Watercourses
Skagerak Kraft is engaged in power production in some of Southern Norway’s biggest watercourse systems. The following provides information about the various watercourses and the location of Skagerak Kraft’s power plants.
A watercourse system is defined as an inter-related system of rivers, streams, lakes and glaciers within a catchment area with perennial flow. Power production in the watercourses has been developed over the past century.
The main part of Skagerak Kraft’s wholly-owned power production takes place in the Skien and Numedal watercourses. In other large watercourse systems, such as Otra, Sira-Kvina and Ulla-Førre, the company is a part owner in some of Norway’s biggest power plants.
We invest in the watercourses to ensure good living conditions for fish and other freshwater organisms. Examples include building weirs, fish ladders, measures to protect eel and freshwater pearl mussels, depositing of spawning gravel and other measures to improve biotopes. Many watercourses are subject to both licence and discretionary requirements relating to minimum flow. Skagerak has also set its own minimum flow for a number of other watercourses.