Norway faces increasing local grid congestion due to electrification of transport, heating, industry, and digital infrastructure. One possible solution is “connection with local coordination”, where several customers under the same grid bottleneck coordinate their electricity use so that total demand remains within a shared capacity limit.

However, while this solution offers a flexible and cost-efficient way to manage grid constraints, its practical implementation is still under development. The main challenges include: (i) Fairness and neutrality so that no customer (especially new entrants) ends up disadvantaged in the capacity allocation hierarchy (e.g., “Statnett queue”). (ii) coordination and control mechanisms - whether through trust-based agreements, digital monitoring, or automated control systems.

This thesis will examine how such agreements can be designed, which types of customers are most suitable, and how DSOs can ensure fairness, transparency, and regulatory compliance. Possible research questions include: How can multiple consumers coordinate under a common grid constraint? What contractual and control mechanisms are needed? Can local coordination reduce congestion and defer grid investments?

Supervisors: Mette Bjørndal and Chunzi Qu.

Time-limited TPV (Tilknytning på vilkår: conditional grid connection) agreements allow new customers to connect to the grid with conditional access to capacity, for example only during low-load periods such as nights, weekends, or summer months. Such agreements may help DSOs connect new demand faster without immediate grid reinforcement.

This thesis will assess the operational, economic, and regulatory potential of time-limited TPV agreements in Norway. Relevant customer groups may include electric bus depots, district heating facilities, industrial loads, and other flexible electricity consumers.

Possible research questions include: Which customers are best suited for time-limited connection agreements? How should time windows and eligibility criteria be designed? Should compliance rely on trust, metering, software solutions, or technical control such as RTU?

Supervisors: Mette Bjørndal and Chunzi Qu.

KILE, short for Kvalitetsjusterte inntektsrammer ved ikke-levert energi, is Norway’s quality-adjusted revenue-cap mechanism for electricity network companies. Under the current rule, interruptions and non-delivered energy have an economic consequence for DSOs: their permitted revenues are adjusted downward when power supply interruptions occur, creating an incentive to maintain socio-economically efficient reliability of supply. However, this also exposes grid operators to large KILE penalties and incentivizes over-investment in firm grid capacity to avoid even short interruptions.

Data centers are large electricity consumers, but many have backup systems and operational flexibility that may make them more resilient to short interruptions than standard customer categories suggest. In this context, the Energy Coordinator’s recent analysis for Oslo and Elvia has therefore raised the question of whether individualized KILE agreements, or a dedicated KILE category for data centers, could better align socio-economic incentives. In particular, such arrangements could allow data centers who would be willing to accept differentiated reliability and compensation structures in exchange for faster or more flexible grid connection, while maintaining acceptable service outcomes. 

However, this approach raises questions about: (i) regulatory compatibility with NVE’s framework, (ii) transparency and equal treatment, (iii) long-term incentives for reliability provision, (iv) customer choice issue, which means that a bulk data center may have high technical resilience, but still perceive interruptions as high business risk due to the considerations of reputation, service-level agreements, client trust.

This thesis will analyze how the current standardized KILE framework affects incentives for DSOs and large consumers, and whether a dedicated arrangement for data centers could improve grid utilization, connection capacity, and socio-economic efficiency. In addition, what are the technical and economic characteristics of data centers that justify differentiated KILE treatment (e.g., backup capacity, redundancy, flexibility), how could an individualized KILE model be structured to reflect the real interruption cost and resilience profile of data centers, should differentiated KILE be voluntary, default-with-opt-out, or targeted at specific customer classes, and what are the regulatory implications under NVE’s framework, could be possible research questions. 

Supervisors: Mette Bjørndal and Chunzi Qu.

Large stand-alone batteries are now emerging as a potential tool to support grid operation and defer or complement grid investments. Elvia’s recent pilot initiative reflects growing interest in understanding how large battery systems could provide services such as peak shaving, congestion relief, local balancing, backup capacity, and enhanced operational flexibility. However, battery parks do not fit easily into existing grid-connection practices, which were mainly designed for conventional loads and generators.

This thesis will investigate how DSOs can design connection agreements that allow battery parks to provide system value while preserving investor incentives and regulatory compliance.

Possible research questions include: What services can battery parks realistically provide to distribution grids? What operational risks and uncertainties do DSOs face when integrating battery parks under existing connection practices? How should a connection agreement be structured to define operating constraints, availability requirements, and interaction with the DSO during peak-load periods? What economic incentives and business models motivate battery-park investors, and how do these incentives interact with DSO needs?

Supervisors: Mette Bjørndal and Chunzi Qu.

District heating can contribute to local grid flexibility by shifting electricity use away from peak-load periods. Technologies such as large heat pumps, electric boilers, hybrid heat production, and thermal storage allow district heating operators to adjust heat production in response to electricity prices, grid constraints, and operational signals from DSOs.

In Norway, district heating pricing is regulated through a maximum-price mechanism. The price of district heating is linked to the cost of electric heating, meaning that district heating companies generally cannot charge more than the comparable cost of electricity-based heating. This mechanism provides consumer protection, but it may also weaken incentives for cost-reflective tariffs, flexible heat production, and investment in technologies that could support the electricity grid. In this context, NVE is currently reviewing how district heating price mechanism should be adjusted, with the aim of developing a framework better adapted to today’s heat and electricity markets.

This thesis will examine whether stronger coordination between electricity and district heating can help reduce local grid congestion in Norway. The analysis may focus on how district heating companies respond to electricity prices, grid tariffs, and DSO signals, how the Norwegian maximum-price rule affects incentives for flexible heat production and investment, and what regulatory improvements could strengthen the role of district heating in local energy-system flexibility.

Possible research questions include: What types of flexibility can district heating provide to the electricity grid? How does the electricity-linked district heating price cap affect operational and investment incentives? Do current electricity tariffs, grid tariffs, and heat pricing rules provide sufficient incentives for coordination? What regulatory or market-design changes could make electricity-heat coordination more effective?

Supervisors: Mette Bjørndal and Chunzi Qu.

Today, suitable locations for new wind projects are often identified ""manually,"" with individuals familiar with the areas and local conditions studying maps and pinpointing promising sites. Later, analyses of wind conditions, biodiversity, proximity to settlements, and other factors are conducted to verify the location.

Could this process be reversed? Is it possible to build a data model that integrates parameters such as wind conditions, existing power plants, mapped natural values, municipal policies, and grid infrastructure to recommend new wind power locations?

Supervisor: Geir Drage Berentsen.

Perform a thorough scientific analysis of efficiency as well as environmental and economic effects of electrification of the oil and gas platforms in the North Sea in a national as well as international perspective.

Supervisor: Stein Ivar Steinshamn.

Some claim that wind farms lead to depopulation and reduced residential appeal in host municipalities. Others argue that the positive ripple effects of wind power (such as municipal revenues, jobs, etc.) increase the attractiveness of living in the municipality.  Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between and probably varies from case to case.

Is it possible to draw any general conclusions based on the approximately 60 wind farms that have been built in Norway? Have they had any measurable impact on residential appeal? And what distinguishes the successful cases from the unsuccessful ones?

Supervisor: Geir Drage Berentsen.

In partly cooperation with NIVA (The Norwegian Institute for Water Research).

Supervisor: Stein Ivar Steinshamn.

Recent years have seen substantial variation in household electricity prices in Norway. This thesis should investigate how households have responded to these price shocks. Did they reduce electricity consumption? Did they work more? The empirical analysis uses data on household-level electricity consumption.

Supervisor: Maximilian Todtenhaupt.

How to build future sustainable offshore logistics. Shipping technology, fleet renewal, energy-efficient operations will become crucial in the path towards zero-emission logistics along the Norwegian continental shelf. This topics is part of a large project in collaboration with main Norwegian stakeholders.

Supervisor: Mario Guajardo.

This project studies several topics on optimization models and methods for decision support in production of dairy and meat products. The aim is to improve profitability while reducing greenhouse gas emissions of the farming sector in Norway. It is part of a large project in collaboration with the main Norwegian stakeholders in this sector.

Supervisor: Mario Guajardo.

Some highlights of the company:

• Developer of equipment to the fish farming industry
• Our mission is to provide equipment to protect fish from lice infection
• Our products are for example protection shields, upwelling system, filtration of surface water and monitoring environmental conditions by the use of sensors
• We are constantly seeking new developments to improve our solutions
• We are also in a progress of making new partners to have the option to supply complementary products which will supplement our existing products
• Main office is located in Nordfjordeid
• Contact person: Arild Heggland

Some aspects that could be the foundation of a master thesis:

• Market knowledge of Fjord Miljø and our products
• Market rating of Fjord Miljø
• How to improve knowledge and rating?
• Estimate willingness to pay for protection against lice infection
• Valuation of our products
• How do fish farmers consider new products to be useful in the future, these products will be specified later
• Where do fish farmers expect the industry to move on, landbased, closed containers in sea, continue as their producing today?
• Other relevant topics.

Supervisor: Stein Ivar Steinshamn.

This study complements the many that have asked whether ESG (environment, sustainability and governance) is associated with higher or lower return on investment: Finance also creates real assets. Is there evidence, in our time, that preferences or policies, regulation, raises resource flows and asset creation (builds windmills, for instance).

Supervisor: Gunnar S. Eskeland.

Contact Eskeland for Study design, as many approaches are on the table. One is the role of taxes (incl the new 'grunnrenteskatt'), another is new concessions and the role and shape of auctions, including contracts of difference; a third is offshore installations and how they are placed in terms of access to markets, etc.

Supervisor: Gunnar S. Eskeland.

NHH works with technically oriented partners (industry, ntnu, ife) on scenarios for the transition to a low-carbon economy. This thesis will combine such scenarios for the transition with perspectives from political economy (as with: who pays, and industry interests, and rich vs poor) and social acceptance.

Supervisor: Gunnar S. Eskeland.

An analysis of electrical vehicles in  Norway where reduced emissions are measured against  reduced tax revenue.

Supervisor: Stein Ivar Steinshamn.

• What branding effect will the use of green/emission-free logistics chains have for the fish farming industry?
• What is the willingness to pay on the part of cargo owners for the use of low- and zero-emission vessels in their logistics operations?
• Economic valuation of Maritime Cleantech as a cluster organisation.
• Hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels - how big a role can the production and distribution of these play for Norwegian value creation in 2050?
• Joint Norwegian investment for the maritime industry: how to position ourselves for increased exports of green technology? (Strategic/Marketing)
• Analysis of the market for green maritime technology in Southern Europe (can be built on research done by Innovation Norway in France, Spain and Italy)
• Size, scope and framework of incentive schemes for contracts for difference.
• Are end consumers willing to pay for green (maritime) transport? If so, how much?
• Profitability analyzes and CO2 reduction for conversion of existing vessels vs. new construction.
• Life cycle analyzes for ships - case speedboats and/or cargo ships - Lifetime of vessels - co2 emissions - conversion or measures that can reduce emissions during the ship's lifetime.
• Return scheme/ circular economy model for ships.
• Is there an update of the policy apparatus to support wider and more retrofit solutions for ships, to make them more energy efficient?

Supervisor: Stein Ivar Steinshamn.

• Shipping aims to halve its emissions by 2050. How should a shipping company approach this goal in terms of investment and redevelopment programmes? (Shipping company)
• How to market/sell green fuels and technologies that have not yet been demonstrated in the market? For example hydrogen, fuel cells etc. (fuel producers, FC producers and the like.)
• Strategy for marketing hydrogen/ammonia as a safe and secure green fuel (producers).
• Green innovation: How to change from traditional offshore to deliveries in new value chains (supplier industry, shipyards, shipping companies).
• Efficient/appropriate incentive/public/industrial structure for the production and supply of new energy carriers from wind farms and other offshore locations.

Supervisor: Stein Ivar Steinshamn.

ESA’s Earth Online portal offers European research institutes direct and simple access to Earth Observation data coming from satellite missions operated directly by the European Space Agency and Third Party Missions. These data can be combined with ghgsat estimates to answer the following question: "How much carbon dioxide equivalent was released during the mining/extraction of a particular mine/oil & gas field?"

Supervisor: Giacomo Benini.

The risk of accepting Airbnb guests is that they might run up all of your utilities. Are renters sensitive to this concern? Estimate the relationship between listings and electricity prices.

Scrape the Data from http://insideairbnb.com/get-the-data/ and determine whether Airbnb listings in the last 2 years respond to electricity prices.

Supervisor: Evelina Gavrilova-Zoutman.

Supervisor: Gunnar S. Eskeland.

Supervisor: Gunnar S. Eskeland.

Supervisor: Gunnar S. Eskeland.

Supervisor: Gunnar S. Eskeland.

A study of the efficiency and suitability of batteries in order to solve the intermittency problem associated with new renewable energy such as solar and wind power.

Supervisor: Stein Ivar Steinshamn.

Supervisor: Gunnar S. Eskeland.

Supervisor: Gunnar S. Eskeland.

Supervisor: Gunnar S. Eskeland.

What’s the cost-benefit for using an integrated climate and environment surveillance on seafood production? The student will assess the impact and values associated with using a detailed monitoring tool called Clarify, which currently is employed by many seafood producers. The student will be given access to unpublished data afforded by Clarify that can be directly compared to other chains of the seafood production, including feeding, fish welfare, loss to sickness and slaughter. Additional climate data can also be made available to the student depending on emerging needs. This Master opens for a relevant exploration of how monitoring can strengthen seafood sustainability and resilience to the changing climate conditions that remain the key premise for seafood production. The industry partner for this thesis is Clarify.

Supervisor: Geir Drage Berentsen.

Organizing and analyzing data from the Norwegian directorate of fisheries.

Supervisor: Arnt Ove Hopland.

Supervisor: Øyvind Thomassen.

Contact: oyvind.thomassen@nhh.no.

I have three data sets that you can use for the thesis: 1) price lists with car model variant and some technical characteristics, 2) new registrations of car model engine variants, by age and sex of the registered owner, 3) the annual rules for calculating the registration tax (engangsavgift). 

For most uses, you will want to merge data sets 1) and 2). This will entail some tedious data work (probably using Stata or R), because of a lack of exact common identifiers. 

The data go up to 2015, but it may be possible to obtain more recent data. 

There are many questions that could be answered with the data, including saying something about the effect of the favorable tax treatment given to electric vehicles, which probably explains their large market share in Norway. 

To choose this topic you must have taken a course in econometrics.

Supervisor: Øyvind Thomassen.

Contact: oyvind.thomassen@nhh.no.

Like my topic ‘Econometric analysis of the sales of new cars in Norway’, this topic is based on data on cars in Norway. However, for this topic, I currently do not have the data, but I believe they can be obtained from Statens Vegvesen (Norwegian Public Roads Administration).

My other topic uses data on the flow of new cars. This topic uses data on the stock of cars. The two data sources could conceivably be combined.

Background from a course in econometrics is needed.

How does natural resource extraction such as oil&gas production affect nearby firms in other sectors, such as manufacturing and services? Potential agglomeration effects could benefit firms, but increased competition for labor or more corruption might harm firms. Since firms are the backbone of every modern economy, these considerations are crucial to understand whether natural resources are a blessing or a curse.

Supervisor: Paul Pelzl.

Potential topics are:

• Zero emissions (in shipping/buildings/road veh/airplanes): too much, or just right?
• Certificates of Origin for Electricity; Stepchild or rising star?
• A carbon cap for Norwegian farmers: Let forests do what cows and farmers cannot?
• Carbon footprint and economic analysis for a firm/sector
• Hydrogen: which part is failing: cars, hydrogen or filling and logistics
• A new look at biomass and biofuels: can photosynthesis propel transport
• Oceans in a sustainability strategy
• Solar power: if a leap lies ahead, what can trigger it
• Decentralized power generation in Norway: framework and business analysis
• Renewable power in Norway: shall it expand, and with what instruments
• A role for Norway as a battery for Europe’s intermittent power
• A business analysis of Norway’s three proposed carbon capture and storage projects (cement, fertilizer, waste dump)
• Analysis of emission reduction prospects in Norwegian transport
• Econometric analysis of demand for energy (or carbon) intensive goods, transport
• Forests: More wood and biomass in buildings: Economic analysis of climate prospects
• Financial markets: is there evidence of ‘sin portfolios’ or ‘virtue’ (or green/fossil)? The value of fossil assets / promises in financial markets
• Analysis of CO2 markets
• Modeling energy exchange in Northern Europe

Supervisor: Gunnar S. Eskeland.

In cooperation with ENOVA

Contact: Gunnar Eskeland (NHH) and Børge Nilssen Stafne (ENOVA)

In cooperation with ENOVA

Contact: Gunnar Eskeland (NHH) and Arnt Gunnar Lium (ENOVA)

Supervisor: Stein Ivar Steinshamn.

Supervisor: Mette Bjørndal.

Supervisor: Mette Bjørndal.

Supervisor: Mette Bjørndal.

Supervisor: Mette Bjørndal.

Supervisor: Mette Bjørndal.

Supervisor: Mette Bjørndal.

Around the world, the governments are imple- menting policies to foster the introduction of renewable energy. In that context, there are different research questions to develop in a master thesis that could contribute to develop a sustainable economic system.

1. Which will be the relation between renewable energy and hydrogen?
2. Which are the policies introduced in cities to reduce carbon emissions?
3. Which will be the impact of the adoption of renewable energy in women unemploy- ment? Could the introduction of renewable energy increase the gender gap?
4. Which will be the changes in the design of electricity markets induced by the intro- duction of renewable energy?
5. Which is the relation between hydrogen and lithium batteries? Which is the best way to store electricity in the short-term and in the long-term?
6. Which policies could be implemented to promote energy effciency?
7. How do the electricity grid need to change to accommodate renewable energy?

Supervisor: Mario Blazques de Paz

Electricity markets are moving through the integration around the world. Moreover, the countries are increasing their investments in renewable production capacity to fulfil with the agreements in carbon emission reductions. In that context, the transmission grid plays a crucial role promoting the integration of electricity markets and accommodating the renewable production capacity into the system. In re- lation with this topic, there are different research questions that could be of interest to develop a master thesis.

1. Which should be design of electricity markets in the presence of transmission con- straints.
2. Could the integration of electricity markets in Europe increase competition? Which will be the impact of that integration in the investments in transmission capacity, and in renewable production capacity?
3. Which should be the relation between the spot and the redispatch market when the transmission lines are congested? How we can design those markets to increase com- petition?
4. How should the regulator design transmission tariffs to guarantee investments in trans- mission capacity, and transmission effciency?

Supervisor: Mario Blazques de Paz