Konti-Skan Connect

SEK 6,500 million is Svenska kraftnät’s provisional estimate of its own share of Konti-Skan Connect, the project that will replace the Konti-Skan link across the Kattegat. The existing poles date from 1965 and 1988, and the Swedish operator says they are expected to reach the end of their technical life in the mid-2030s.

The new link is planned at 1,000 MW of high-voltage direct current, up from the 715 MW the current two poles are rated for. It will run between Lindome, south of Gothenburg, and Vester Hassing in Jutland, and Svenska kraftnät is planning it together with its Danish counterpart Energinet.

The schedule on the Svenska kraftnät project page runs over a decade: talks with authorities in 2026, consultation in 2026 and 2027, a permit application in 2027, construction from 2030 and commissioning in 2036.

The first formal step came on 13 February 2026, when Svenska kraftnät published its scoping consultation document for the Swedish section. It explains why the old route, which comes ashore at Billdal and continues by overhead line to Lindome, is not being reused: the line runs close to houses, it must stay in service while the new one is laid, and the seabed along it does not suit a cable meant to need little maintenance.

So the new link takes a fresh path. Of nine landfall sites studied, Malevik and Särö went forward, and the land section will be entirely underground, which avoids a terminal station where overhead line meets cable. The sea corridors cross the Vrångö archipelago Natura 2000 site.

The document also confirms that the European Commission lists the renewal as a Project of Common Interest, says it will probably be co-funded by the Connecting Europe Facility, and dates a legally binding permit decision to 2029.

Most of the design is still open. The route length, the subsea share, the voltage and the converter technology have not been published. On the Swedish side a new converter station will be built next to the existing substation outside Lindome, according to the consultation document; the Danish end at Vester Hassing has not been described in the same detail. The HVDC explainer covers the options such a link would choose between. Energinet’s share of the cost has not been published either, so the SEK 6,500 million figure is only the Swedish half of the bill.