Fingrid secures transmission capacity for growth in electricity consumption and new industrial investments – restrictions on new energy storage facility connections continued in southern Finland

There will be a shortage of grid connection capacity in southern Finland in the coming years. Fingrid’s objective is to ensure that there is sufficient connection capacity to meet the growth in electricity consumption in households, the service sector and industry, as well as new industrial investments that generate economic growth. As a result, Fingrid will continue to restrict the connection of new grid energy storage facilities in southern Finland until 2029. Location is of little importance for the commercial operation of energy storage facilities, and there are plenty of connection opportunities for grid energy storage elsewhere in Finland. 

Last winter, Fingrid announced that no new electricity consumption and grid energy storage could be connected to the consumption-dominated southern Finland before the beginning of 2027. The restriction will now be continued for grid energy storage until 2029, when the new Hikiä-Toivila grid connection that will increase connection capacity in southern Finland is completed. This will ensure that there is sufficient connection capacity to meet the growth in electricity consumption in households, the service sector and industry, as well as new industrial investments that generate economic growth.  

Fingrid is exploring new ways to connect grid energy storages to southern Finland earlier than currently announced, such as flexible connections. 

Grid energy storage is an important part of the electricity system of the future. In the future, storage will play a key role in balancing electricity production fluctuations and, for example, in the balancing market. The geographical location of the energy storage facility is of little importance for its commercial operation, as there is a single price area for electricity trading in Finland. Fingrid still has several thousand megawatts of available grid connection capacity for energy storage, especially in Ostrobothnia and northern Finland, where an energy storage connection can be implemented even in a short timeframe.  

There is currently unprecedented interest in building grid energy storage facilities in Finland  with more than 30 000 megawatts of energy storage requests for connection to the grid. This is approximately double the amount of Finland’s all-time peak electricity consumption. Fingrid has already signed contracts to connect energy storage facilities to the grid for around 1 800 megawatts, and significant amounts of energy storage connections to distribution networks have also been agreed. 

In practice, an energy storage facility is both consumption and production for the electricity grid, and it reserves grid connection capacity equal to both its consumption and production capacity. Moreover, its use is difficult to predict. In order to maintain an up-to-date situational overview, all energy storage projects exceeding five megawatts must submit a connection contract inquiry to Fingrid throughout Finland. Fingrid will estimate the maximum capacity to be allocated to energy storage at each connection point based on the connection contract inquiries. This ensures the conditions for growth in local electricity consumption and production. 

Further information:

Jussi Jyrinsalo, Director, Fingrid Oyj, tel +358 30 395 5118
Petri Parviainen, Unit Manager, Fingrid Oyj, tel +358 30 395 5282

E-mail addresses: forename.surname@fingrid.fi