Grid connection permit process

• Act 588/2013

There is no legislation guiding the grid connection procedure in Finland: the grid connection is a bilateral agreement between the grid operator and the RES installation owner (see sections for RES-E and RES-H&C grids for more information). Chapters 4 and 5 of Act 588/2013 set out the legal obligations and responsibilities of DSO’s and the TSO, such as the duty to develop the grid according to its members’ needs.
The grid operator has the freedom to decide at which stage of permitting procedure a project can enter into grid connection agreement negotiations. Usually, this is not possible before the project has been approved in spatial planning, or in some cases, not before the project has been granted a construction permit.
When the RES installation owner and the DSO have entered into an agreement about grid capacity and grid connection, the developer has 30 days to pay the grid connection fee. In Finland, RES does not enjoy priority access to the grid but all technologies are treated equally.
Very small RES installations usually have to enter into an agreement with the DSO in order to gain grid access. If the installation is very small, such as a small wind turbine or a heat pump in a residential building, the owner of the installation has the right to join the grid if the installation fulfils all technical and safety requirements, and if the grid is not already full.

• Fingrid (TSO)
• Local DSOs