Green Mountain has been fined NOK 2 million ($188,000) for beginning construction at the Heggvin transformer station in Hamar Municipality, Norway, without a permit.

First reported in Datacenter Forum, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) fined the Nordic data center provider after construction began while the concession application was still under review.

The Heggvin transformer station is being built to supply electricity to a planned data center. Social media giant TikTok has been reported as one of the potential customers of the data center.

In January 2024, a private citizen alerted the NVE to the construction of the masts, transformer foundations, and control buildings.

The construction was halted until permission was granted shortly after in February. However, the fine still stands.

Svein Atle Hagaseth, CEO of Green Mountain, said: “We have now reviewed the decision from NVE, and although we disagree with the rationale and background for the fee, we have chosen to see this as an expensive but valuable learning experience and have accepted the fee.”

Anne Johanne Kråkenes, section manager at NVE, said: “Starting construction without a permit is a serious violation that undermines the entire licensing scheme.”

The directorate added that it has noted an increase in illegal construction and is honing in on enforcing compliance among energy facility developers.

Green Mountain delivered its first data center in Oslo, Norway, to TikTok at the end of last year. The company currently has three other data centers in Norway: SVG1 Rennesoy, RJU1 Krukan, and OSL1 Enebakk.

Norway recently said it would regulate its data center industry in a bid to stop the country from becoming a haven for cryptominers.