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VivoPower PLC (NASDAQ:VIVO, FRA:51J) said its 41.5-megawatt data center in Mo i Rana, Norway, has been prequalified to provide 30 MW of flexible load to Statnett SF’s ancillary services markets, creating a new revenue stream expected to contribute about $1.9 million in annual EBITDA.
The approval covers two reserve markets. Twelve megawatts were cleared for FCR-D, a fast-response frequency containment reserve requiring automatic load reduction within 10 seconds when Nordic grid frequency falls below 49.9 Hz.
Another 18 MW were approved for the manual Frequency Restoration Reserve (mFRR), which can be activated within 12.5 minutes and pays fixed availability fees.
The remaining 11.5 MW is reserved for tenant operations.
VivoPower said the site benefits from a structural advantage due to its location in Norway’s NO4 electricity bidding zone, where day-ahead power prices averaged about 10 øre per kilowatt-hour in 2025 (US$0.01) compared with 50 to 77 øre in southern Norway and much of continental Europe, largely because of abundant hydroelectric generation.
Reserve capacity payments, however, are set across the Nordic synchronous area, allowing Mo i Rana to earn the same per-megawatt fee as competing assets in southern Sweden or Finland.
VivoPower said this combination of low local power costs and region-wide payment rates strengthens margins.
About 80% of the projected EBITDA is expected to come from capacity payments earned for continuous availability, with the remaining 20% from activation payments when reserves are called upon. The estimate is net of aggregator fees, telemetry costs, and metering charges.
CEO Kevin Chin said the reserve market participation creates a high-margin revenue stream complementary to AI tenant operations without additional capital expenditure.
“Mo i Rana is not just a powered site — it is a flexibility asset embedded in one of the most efficient electricity markets in the world,” Chin told shareholders. “This is the first of several flexibility-economics lines we expect to develop at Mo i Rana over the coming quarters.”