Energy transmitted via Nordic and Baltic direct current (HVDC) interconnections continued to grow in 2024

ENTSO-E statistics on the availability of Nordic and Baltic direct current (HVDC) interconnections for 2024 has been published on Fingrid's website. The statistics present information on transmission, availability, and outages of HVDC links.

HVDC links are essential for the operation of the Nordic and Baltic electricity systems. In 2024, a total of 85.1 TWh (terawatt hours) of electricity were transmitted via the links. This was an increase of 8.7 TWh from the previous year, mainly due to two new 700 MW connections between Denmark and the United Kingdom.

The availability of all links was 89% and utilisation 65%, which corresponds to the figures of the previous year 2023. Disturbances, maintenance outages and power limitations, which cause unavailability of the links, stayed on average levels.

6.5 TWh of electricity was transmitted via HVDC links between Finland and Sweden and 4.2 TWh between Finland and Estonia.

The availability of the links between Finland and Sweden was: Fenno-Skan 1 (85%) and Fenno-Skan 2 (93%). The numbers are somewhat lower than average due to planned work such as Rauma AC-substation renewal and Fenno-Skan 1 and 2 control and monitoring system renewal.

The availability of the links between Finland and Estonia was: EstLink 1 (98%) and EstLink 2 (38%). The low availability of EstLink 2 was due to a cable failure near the Estonian coast in January. The repair took more than seven months. The cable was again damaged, this time by an anchor, in late December, but this outage will be more visible in the 2025 statistics.

The utilisation of the Finnish links were: Fenno-Skan 1 (76%), Fenno-Skan 2 (55%), EstLink 1 (77%) and EstLink 2 (32%).

More information on the Nordic and Baltic HVDC links can be found in the report ENTSO‐E HVDC Utilisation and availability statistics 2024. The report can be viewed here.

More information:
Markku Piironen, Fingrid Oyj
E-mail addresses: forename.surname@fingrid.fi

Definitions:

The availability indicates how much of the link's technical capacity (TWh) was available for transmission.

Utilisation indicates how much of the link's technical capacity (TWh) was used for transmission.