Sweden’s government has instructed the grid operator Svenska kraftnät to put on hold a planned renewal and upgrade of an electricity cable connection to Denmark, the Konti-Scan Connect link. The move follows Energy, Business and Industry Minister Ebba Busch’s announcement at the EU energy ministers’ meeting in March that Sweden would halt new or upgraded cable connections to continental Europe unless the focus of the European Grids Package shifts.
“The EU should not receive Swedes’ electricity money. At the moment, Brussels is not listening to us. That’s why we are pausing plans for new cables for power exports,” Busch said. Negotiations on the package have run since December 2025, and Sweden has objected to what it sees as an excessive focus on solving supply problems by building new grids, as well as to limits on how congestion revenues may be used and to centralised, EU-level system planning.
Some adjustments on congestion revenues have been made in recent weeks, which Stockholm counts as a gain, but the government says the text still restricts how member states, especially those with internal bidding zones, may use the funds. Sweden wants the revenues usable for fossil-free, dispatchable generation needed to enable electrification, and for electricity subsidies; on central planning, it reports very limited progress.
Svenska kraftnät is now tasked with drafting a revised 2027–2029 investment plan that excludes the Denmark upgrade, while the government has flagged a need for deeper analysis of possible new cables to Finland. For a region whose energy strategy leans heavily on interconnection, Sweden’s pause is a pointed signal that grid integration will advance only on terms member states judge fair.
