NIB finances power cable in Helsinki

Photo: Helen Sähköverkko

NIB and the Finnish utility company Helen Sähköverkko Oy have signed a 10-year-maturity EUR 10 million loan agreement to finance a new 110 kV double cable connection between Suvilahti and Viikinmäki in Helsinki, Finland.

The new cable will improve the security of supply in central Helsinki and becomes a part of the regional transmission grid serving the area of Helsinki and its neighbouring city of Vantaa. The construction work will be carried out next to, or underneath, existing roads in 2014-2016. The cable will reduce Helen Sähköverkko’s operational expenses since it obviates external back-up capacity sourcing during planned outages in one of the existing connections.

The cable comes in addition to the existing 110 kV overhead Herttoniemi-Suvilahti and Pitäjänmäki-Meilahti-Salmisaari cables. The downtown Helsinki area has some 200,000 residents and is naturally an important locus of business and administrative activity. Today’s electrical usage at peak hours is about 400 MW. It is expected that usage will increase to 480 MW by 2020.

Helen Sähköverkko Oy is in charge of planning, building, operating and maintaining the distribution network in almost all of the Helsinki area. The company is owned by the City of Helsinki, via its public utility Helsingin Energia, and controls some 6,300 kilometres of the electricity network with about 355,000 end-users.

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,