The 20-year loan will be used as long-term financing for Fingrid's investment plan to strengthen the transmission grid in the country

NIB

Image: NIB to provide loan to Fingrid to upgrade transmission infrastructure in Finland. Photo: Courtesy of Fingrid Oyj.

Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) has agreed to provide a loan of €100m ($111m) to Finnish transmission system operator Fingrid for expanding and upgrading its grid.

The 20-year loan will be used as long-term financing for Fingrid’s investment plan to strengthen the transmission grid in the country. The company’s investments are driven by the aging network, electricity market development and the need to connect new renewable energy to the grid.

Planned projects include strengthening the transmission infrastructure in Northern Karelia, upgrading nineteen 110kV substations and six 400/110kV substations, renewing the Olkiluoto 400kV switchyard and doubling the capacity of the Isoniemi and Hirvisuo substations.

Fingrid Senior Vice President and chief financial officer Jan Montell said: “We are very pleased with NIB’s continuous support and its latest decision to finance Fingrid’s core investments.

“These investments enable the transformation of the electricity system to accommodate increasing amounts of renewable energy generation and strengthen the network to keep Finland as one electricity price area.”

The investment will help add 1.4GW of wind power to the Finnish grid

Furthermore, the investment will be used for constructing new transmission connections to wind parks, adding an estimated capacity of 1.4GW generating capacity to the network in the Northern part of the country.

NIB president and CEO Henrik Normann said: “The projects included in the financing agreement will increase the reliability of the electricity transmission for the society, industry and promote Finland’s competitiveness.”

Fingrid is a public company responsible for transmitting electricity to the high-voltage transmission system in Finland. The system has more than 14,000km of 400, 220 and 110kV transmission lines and more than 100 substations. The power system is part of the inter-Nordic power system and connected to Continental Europe, Russia, and Estonia.

Last October, NIB had agreed to provide a loan to Vantaan Energia Oy for retrofitting its K1 boiler to use biofuel at the Martinlaakso CHP plant in Vantaa, Finland.