After practical experience at Siemens & Halske in Germany, he returned to Norway to participate in developing the Kykkelsrud power plant.

"[5] The difficult economic times of the Great Depression in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s corresponded to Heggstad's term as chancellor, and at his inauguration he predicted that "difficulties will come and persist for many years yet."

"[5] In 1919, Heggstad was engaged by the Norwegian parliament as a member of the 1919 Electricity Commission to create a national plan for power supply.

The ministry gave preference to applicants that had served in the Nordland Regiment, Norwegian Legion, or Germanske SS Norge.

Because many employees refused to work with the new Quisling regime, he exercised virtually sole management of the Norwegian Institute of Technology.

A minority of the professors at the institute agreed that school should submit because "according to Section 12 of the Law on Higher Education, the chancellor is charged with ensuring that important government decisions are carried out."

The other professors went underground, and a secret professorial maintained contact with the Home Front resistance leaders from the fall of 1943 onward.

[2] The professorship in hydraulic engineering became vacant when Heggstad retired and stood empty for twelve years until a new professor was appointed to it.