Sweden Denmark power cable plans have been paused after Stockholm suspended Konti-Skan Connect, a major electricity link with Denmark, in a dispute with the European Union over how Sweden can use revenues generated by power grid bottlenecks.
Sweden turns an EU grid dispute into a cable decision
The Swedish government said on Friday that it will pause Konti-Skan Connect, a planned electricity interconnector with Denmark, after new disagreements emerged in Brussels over the use of Swedish congestion revenues. These are the revenues collected when electricity price differences arise between bidding zones and grid capacity limits the flow of power.
Energy Minister Ebba Busch (KD), Minister for Energy, Business and Industry (energi- och näringsminister), said Sweden was “going from words to action” by removing the project from Svenska kraftnät’s investment plan. The project was meant to renew the electricity connection between south-western Sweden and Jutland, replacing two ageing cables that link the Swedish and Danish power systems.
The decision marks a sharper phase in Sweden’s confrontation with the EU over electricity market rules. Earlier this year, Stockholm criticised a proposal that would have directed part of member states’ bottleneck revenues to common European energy investments. The Swedish government now says new proposals in the EU network package still contain rules that are unacceptable for Sweden.
Why Sweden wants control over bottleneck revenues
At the centre of the dispute are bottleneck revenues, also known as congestion income. In Sweden, these revenues have become politically important because of large electricity price differences between the north, where much of the country’s power is produced, and the south, where demand is higher and grid capacity is more constrained.
According to Swedish reporting, Svenska kraftnät’s bottleneck account held around SEK 85 billion at the turn of the year, about €7.3 billion, while a further SEK 130 billion, about €11.2 billion, is expected over the next decade. The government wants more flexibility to use these funds not only for grid expansion, but also for electricity support in a prolonged crisis and for investments in domestic power production, including hydropower, nuclear power and renewables.
Brussels has pushed for rules that keep congestion income more closely tied to grid investments and cross-border capacity. Stockholm argues that this would limit Sweden’s ability to protect consumers and strengthen its own energy system. Busch said Sweden cannot be expected “to solve everyone else’s problems”, framing the dispute as a question of national energy policy inside the EU electricity market.
Konti-Skan Connect was meant to renew a key Nordic link
The suspended Sweden-Denmark electricity cable concerns Konti-Skan Connect, a planned high-voltage direct current link between south-western Sweden and Jutland. Svenska kraftnät and Denmark’s Energinet have described the project as a renewal of the existing Konti-Skan 1 and 2 connections, needed to maintain reliable electricity transmission between the two countries.
For Denmark, the cable matters because interconnectors help balance supply and demand in a power system with a high share of wind energy. For Sweden, however, new export capacity has become politically sensitive. In southern Sweden, electricity prices have often been higher than in the north, and critics argue that stronger links to neighbouring markets can increase pressure on Swedish consumers if domestic grid bottlenecks are not solved first.
By pausing Konti-Skan Connect, Stockholm is sending a message to both Brussels and neighbouring countries. Sweden is not closing the door to Nordic electricity cooperation, but it is tying future cross-border investment to the outcome of negotiations over how bottleneck revenues can be used.
The EU energy market faces a Nordic test
The dispute reflects a wider tension in European energy policy. The EU wants more interconnections to improve security of supply, integrate renewable energy and reduce price fragmentation across the single market. Sweden argues that deeper integration must not weaken national investment priorities or consumer protection.
The pause may also complicate Nordic energy cooperation. Sweden and Denmark are closely connected through electricity trade, and the Nordic power market has long been one of Europe’s most integrated regional systems. A delay to a major cross-border cable therefore goes beyond a bilateral infrastructure decision. It raises a broader question: how far can EU electricity market integration go when governments face domestic pressure over prices, grid capacity and control of public revenues?
Busch has said she remains hopeful that a solution can be found at EU level. Until then, the suspension of Konti-Skan Connect gives Sweden a concrete bargaining tool in a dispute that links domestic energy politics, Nordic infrastructure and the future of Europe’s electricity market.
