HELSINKI (Reuters) – Sweden and Denmark will replace two aging undersea power cable lines to increase transmission capacity between the countries, Swedish grid operator Kraftnat said on Thursday.
“The main driving force behind the renewal is to enable continued electricity trade between Sweden and Denmark,” Kraftnat said in a statement, adding that the cables are expected to reach their estimated technical lifetimes in the mid-2030s.
Baltic nations are on alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The joint transmission capacity of the two lines, Konti-Skan 1 and 2, will increase by 40% to 1,000 megawatts, which the operators expect to provide more stability to electricity prices, the statement read.
The two lines run between Lindome near Gothenburg in southern Sweden and Vester Hassing in northern Denmark.
The work will cost around 6.5 billion Swedish crowns ($598.4 million) which will be equally split between the two operators, Kraftnat said.
($1 = 10.8619 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Essi Lehto, editing by Louise Rasmussen, Kirsten Donovan)
