Published 2026-09-12 · Event 2025-05-20

Fingrid’s Fenno-Skan 3 letter of intent is an 800 MW study start, not a late-2030s hall import

On 20 May 2025 Fingrid said it and Svenska kraftnät had signed a letter of intent to start planning Fenno-Skan 3, an estimated 800 MW submarine link aimed at 2038. A planning start is not a commissioned interconnect and not campus offtake.

Fingrid’s 20 May 2025 Fenno-Skan 3 notice is the dated planning-start source used here. It says the Finnish and Swedish transmission system operators signed a letter of intent to launch planning of a third submarine cable between Finland and Sweden. Capacity is estimated at 800 MW. The new connection is expected to be completed by 2038. A letter of intent is not a cable in the water.

The replacement sentence must stay a replacement sentence. Two HVDC links already run between the countries: Fenno-Skan 1 from 1989 and Fenno-Skan 2 from 2011, together 1,200 MW. Fenno-Skan 3 is planned to replace Fenno-Skan 1 at the end of its life in the late 2030s, bringing the new total capacity to 1,600 MW. Fingrid’s later project page writes the same 800 MW figure, a 400 MW increase in both directions once the 400 MW Fenno-Skan 1 is replaced, a grid study of benefits and connection points due by the end of 2026, and Project of Common Interest status on the second PCI/PMI list.

The sibling-interconnect sentence must stay a sibling sentence. The May 2025 notice also mentions Aurora Line, then still under construction and expected to finish in 2025, and early-2030s planning talk for Aurora Line 2. Aurora Line 1’s November 2025 energisation is a different file. The government’s 8 May 2026 assignment to exclude Konti-Skan Connect, Aurora Line 2 and Fenno-Skan 3 from Svenska kraftnät’s revised 2027–2029 investment plan is a later neighbouring paper. This article does not treat a 2025 letter of intent as that pause, and it does not treat the pause as a cancellation of the study.

Svenska kraftnät’s PCI page, read here as a companion, lists Fenno-Skan 3 among the three Sweden projects placed on the 2026–2027 PCI list, described as a replacement of Fenno-Skan 1 with planned commissioning in 2038. PCI listing is not an investment decision and not reserved hall megawatts in SE3.

DataCenterSweden records 20 May 2025 as a Fingrid and Svenska kraftnät Fenno-Skan 3 planning-start notice. No project identifier is attached. The next update would need a later primary source that names a closed study, an investment decision or a reserved offtake tied to the link. Until then, 800 MW stays an estimated interconnect figure — not a late-2030s hall import.

Why it matters

An 800 MW Sweden–Finland cable headline is easy to file as future hall import. The May letter is usable only if planning stays planning — not a commissioned link.

What remains unknown

The 2025 letter does not close the 2026 study, take an investment decision or attach a hall offtake to Fenno-Skan 3.

Sources