Aurora Line

Most new European interconnectors go under the sea. The Aurora Line goes overland, through the far north. It is a 400 kV alternating-current line on towers, about 380 km long, and it crosses the border between Sweden and Finland between Vuennonkoski on the Finnish side and Risudden on the Swedish side.

Roughly 200 km of the route lies in Finland and 180 km in Sweden. Fingrid’s project page lists the Finnish sections from south to north: Pyhänselkä in Muhos to Herva in Ii, then on to Viitajärvi and Vuonnonkoski in Ylitornio. The Swedish end is the Messaure substation in Norrbotten. The environmental assessments were completed in January 2019 for the southern Finnish stretch and in June 2020 for the northern one, and the Herva–Pyhänselkä section was finished in the summer of 2024.

Why build it? Fingrid’s answer is adequacy: the line ties the Finnish system more firmly into the Nordic grid and improves the country’s supply position. CINEA adds the integration of large-scale renewable generation. It was a Project of Common Interest under the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan, and CINEA reports a Connecting Europe Facility grant of more than €131 million.

The line was energised on 13 November 2025, earlier than the end-of-year date Fingrid had been giving. A series capacitor, which lets the line carry more power with less fluctuation, followed in December 2025. Fingrid said the project would raise the total cross-border capacity between northern Sweden and Finland to a maximum of 1,900 MW in both directions; the line itself adds about 800 MW southbound into Finland and about 900 MW in the other direction. The figures above give the smaller of the two.

For comparison, the Fenno-Skan cables further south cross the Gulf of Bothnia as direct current, because the distance underwater is too long for AC. On land, with no sea to cross, a conventional AC line was the obvious choice. CINEA’s own date for commissioning is 12 November 2025, one day earlier than Fingrid’s.