NIB helps protect power cables from harsh weather

NIB and the Finnish utility company Suur-Savon Sähkö Oy have signed a 12-year-maturity EUR 18 million loan agreement to replace overhead electricity cables with underground cables in eastern Finland to protect against severe weather conditions.

Suur-Savon Sähkö plans to replace 550 transformer substations and 950 kilometres of overhead electrical power cables with underground cables during the 2013–2017 period. The importance of the project is evident as the storms at the turn of the year in 2011/2012 caused considerable damage to overhead power lines.

The benefits are mainly savings from lower operations and maintenance costs as well as event-related repair costs due to damage from severe weather impacts. Maintenance costs are expected to be reduced by 60%, and the faults, including repair services, are estimated to be lowered from 75 to 30 hours annually.

The network upgrade will also increase distribution capacity to meet future demand of about 500-1000 new customer connections annually.

Suur-Savon Sähko provides electricity and district heat to over 100,000 customers in eastern Finland. The Finnish utility company Suur-Savon Sähko provides electricity and district heat to around 40,000 private and corporate customers in eastern Finland. The company employs about 270 people and is owned by 18 municipalities (58.8%), four parishes (5.4%), 20 societies and companies (29.3%), and 342 individuals (6.5%).

NIB is an international financial institution owned by eight member countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. The Bank finances private and public projects in and outside the member countries. NIB has the highest possible credit rating, AAA/Aaa, with the leading rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s.

For further information, please contact
Sami Loukkola, Senior Manager Lending, at +358 50 311 3698,

Arild Moen, Senior Communications Officer, at +358 10 618 0496,