EU grants €127m for Finland-Sweden power transmission line

The Energy programme committee of the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) on Wednesday decided to grant EUR 127 million for the implementation of a planned electricity transmission line between Northern Finland and Northern Sweden.

The amount will be divided between Finland and Sweden. The financial support covers 50% of the project costs, said the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment in a press release on Thursday.

“This is a great decision from the European Union. The project will add the needed extra capacity between Finland and Sweden, which will lower the price of electricity in Finland and improve operational reliability. It also promotes the achievement of climate targets as offshore and land-based wind power can be connected to the network”, said Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä.

This third 400 kV alternating current connection (Aurora Line) between Northern Finland and Northern Sweden is about to be completed in 2025. According to the plans, the new interconnector would be connected to the existing Finnish grid in Keminmaa. The project has already received EUR 4.3 million in support from the CEF for the planning phase.

In this funding round, the CEF Energy selected only five projects for a total support of more than EUR 1 billion. One of them is the Baltic Synchronisation Project where the Baltic electricity grid would be desynchronised from the Russian network system. The CEF will support that project by EUR 177 million. In all, 12 projects applied for aid.

On 7 July 2021, the European Parliament adopted a Regulation on the new Connecting Europe Facility (CEF 2), which provides financial support for the development of transport, energy and telecommunications networks. The CEF’s budget is EUR 33.7 billion, of which EUR 5.8 billion is reserved for energy projects.

The financial support to energy networks will help to further integrate the internal energy market, reduce the EU’s energy dependency and improve the security of energy supply. The programme only funds cross-border projects, including those on renewable energy. The CEF’s first call for funding applications began in September 2021.