Svenska kraftnät and Fingrid have applied for CEF co-funding for the Aurora Line cross-border interconnector

Transmission system operators of Sweden and Finland, Svenska kraftnät and Fingrid, have together applied for Connecting Europe Facility co-funding for the new cross-border interconnector Aurora Line between the northern parts of the countries. The new interconnector will significantly increase transmission capacity between the countries. Construction works of the Aurora Line are planned to be started next year and commissioning will be by the end of 2025.

The new interconnector, Aurora Line, will support the European Green Deal and the EU goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 55% by 2030 by enabling a faster and broader transition to renewable energy. The project is estimated to reduce CO2 emissions by 20 megatons during a 40-year period. In addition, strengthening the transmission capacity in Northern areas will facilitate investments into new wind farms and energy-intensive heavy industrial facilities in the region. This will for example mean better possibilities for the industry to utilize green hydrogen in order to minimize the carbon footprint. Consequently the industry, together with the energy companies in the region, are calling for increasing the cross-border transmission capacity.

The Aurora Line will also reduce electricity import dependency of the EU and increase the security of supply in the Nordic and Baltic countries by considerably strengthening the connection between Sweden and Finland. The new interconnector will improve the functioning of the internal electricity market of the EU by reducing the existing significant and long-lasting bottlenecks between the countries, in turn will reduce electricity price differences in the Nordic and Baltic countries.

The EU has granted the project with Project of Common Interest status. The study phase of Aurora Line has been co-funded by Connecting Europe Facility by 4,3 M€. The construction phase costs of Aurora Line are estimated to be 254 M€ and the applied CEF co-funding is 50% of the total investment.

Additional information:
Mikko Heikkilä, Head of Strategic Grid Planning

Email addresses are in the form firstname.lastname@fingrid.fi

Aurora Line is located in the North Sweden and Finland. The 380 kilometre route will cross the Artic Circle. Aurora line will increase transmission capacity from Sweden to Finland by 800 MW and from Finland to Sweden by 900 MW.