Group test now decides cross-plant split of fixed-price power

Regulation 10 September 2026 nr. 1755 has amended the Tax Regulation (FOR-1999-11-19-1158)Lovdata, whose page stamps the latest amendment's entry into force ("Ikrafttredelse av siste endring") as 2026-09-10, rewriting the triggers that split fixed-price end-user deliveries across hydropower plants and wind installations for resource rent tax purposes. The trigger is no longer framed as the plant owner owning the other plant type: in both § 18-3-33(1) for hydropower and § 18-10-14(1) for wind power, the cross-plant split now applies as soon as the taxable person itself, or a company in the same group (jf. skatteloven § 10-4), owns the other plant typeLovdataLovdata.

For hydropower, § 18-3-33(1) still allocates deliveries falling under skatteloven § 18-3 annet ledd bokstav a nr. 4 across the plants owned by the taxable person or a group company, in proportion to the plants' actual annual production (faktiske årsproduksjon). The allocation is done separately for the combined southern price area (NO1, NO2 and NO5) and the combined northern price area (NO3 and NO4), jf. § 18-3-29 første ledd nr. 1; § 18-3-24 applies correspondingly; and any shortfall is covered by power purchases at the corresponding spot market price in the end user's price area. What is new is the last sentence: where the old text split deliveries across hydro plants and wind installations only if the owner of the hydropower plant also owned wind installationsLovdata, the split now follows whenever the taxable person or a § 10-4 group company owns them — so a group holding its wind assets in a sister company is now within the cross-plant allocation.

The wind-power mirror in § 18-10-14(1) works the same way for deliveries under skatteloven § 18-10 annet ledd bokstav a nr. 2: they are spread across the wind installations' actual annual production, separately for the southern and northern price areas, jf. § 18-10-11 første ledd nr. 1, with any difference covered at the corresponding spot market price in the end user's price area. Previously the hydro leg of the split turned on whether the owner of the wind installation also owned hydropower plantsLovdata; now the same group test applies, so hydro assets held elsewhere in the group pull the wind volumes into a joint allocation.

Two accompanying corrections came with the same amendment. § 18-3-33(2), on shares of jointly assessed (bruttolignet) plants, now points only to the first paragraph where it previously read the first and second paragraphs. And the regulation's hjemmel now cites skatteloven § 18-10 tiende ledd alongside the existing authority provisions.

The provisions sit inside the fixed-price-contract regime: power delivered under long-term fixed-price contracts and resold to end users is valued at the contract price when the conditions in § 18-3-29 and § 18-10-11 are met, including a duration of 3, 5 or 7 years, a fixed volume, and a retail mark-up of at most 2,5 øre per kWh plus at most 99 kroner per metering point, excluding VAT and electricity certificate prices. Onshore wind has been subject to resource rent tax from the 2024 income year for owners of installations with more than five turbines or 1 MW or more of licensed capacity, on top of ordinary income tax. For advisers the consequence is practical: groups holding both plant types must now spread contract-price end-user volumes across both fleets wherever the group test is met.

Legal basis: forskrift 10 September 2026 nr. 1755 amending FOR-1999-11-19-1158 §§ 18-3-33 and 18-10-14Lovdata; the consolidated regulation's hjemmel includes skatteloven § 18-3 and § 18-10 tiende ledd, and both operative provisions apply the group test in skatteloven § 10-4Lovdata.