Anslutningsplikt

The statutory connection obligation: a Swedish grid company’s legal duty to connect a customer’s facility to its network on request. Anslutningsplikt (also anslutningsskyldighet) is the baseline duty that conditional and flexible connection products modify. It is the legal reason a DSO — or even Svenska kraftnät at transmission level — cannot simply refuse a connection when the grid is congested (refusal is permitted only within the narrow limits of 4 kap. 2 §, below), and therefore a central driver of Congestion Management and Flexibility needs.

Legal basis

The obligation is grounded in the Swedish Electricity Act (ellagen, 1997:857; from 1 January 2027 the new Elmarknadslagen). Key provisions:

• 4 kap. 1 § — the connecting grid company must, on request, connect a facility on objective, non-discriminatory and reasonable terms (Ei PM2026:05).
• 4 kap. 2 § — refusal is allowed only if the grid lacks free capacity and the shortage cannot be remedied in a socioeconomically justified way without reinforcing the grid, or if there are other särskilda skäl (special reasons), which Ei reviews case by case. Ei reads this provision as also allowing a grid company (including Svenska kraftnät) to refer an application to a lower grid level for special reasons — e.g. where connection at the higher level would be inefficient or affect operational safety under 3 kap. 1 §. (Ei2025:05)
• 4 kap. 3 § — a regional or transmission grid may connect a facility only if the local grid owner consents (or Ei grants permission); once the local grid has consented, the applicant may choose the regional or transmission level, and the regional grid’s consent is not required for a transmission application.
• 4 kap. 5 § — connection must take place within reasonable time; it may exceed two years only if the connection’s scope and technical design make it necessary or there are other special reasons. (Ei PM2026:05)

A consequence of this hierarchy is that Svenska kraftnät’s transmission grid can become obligated to connect a customer who skipped the regional grid entirely. Ei recommends — but cannot require — that applicants apply at the lowest suitable voltage level and proceed upward (Ei2025:05). Connection prövning and concession assessment (nätkoncessionsprövning) are legally separate parallel processes. See Distribution System Operator › Connection process — Ei ställningstaganden and EU guidance.

The two-year presumptive maximum

Under 4 kap. 5 § ellagen roughly two years is the presumptive outer limit for a reasonable connection time; longer is allowed only where scope, technical design or other special reasons require it (and Ei expects such delays to be justified and transparent). In a congested grid this is increasingly unrealistic, and the gap between the legal presumption and operational reality is what Ei’s supervisory work has set out to measure.

Ei PM2026:05 reviewed how six regional DSOs and Svk fulfilled the obligation in 2023–2024: offer times of 406–1,620 days and completion times of 3–8+ years, with 60% of Svk’s connections exceeding both the two-year limit and the customer’s own deadline. The companion local-grid review is PM2025:01.

Relationship to conditional and flexible connections

Anslutningsplikt is the default — connection on firm, unconditional terms. The instruments that relax it are:

• Villkorade Avtal (conditional connection agreements) — connection granted on the condition that the customer accepts curtailment under defined circumstances, deferring or avoiding reinforcement.
• Flexible Connection Agreements — capacity-limited or time-limited connection, trading firmness for speed.

Ei’s PM2026:05 found these essentially unused at regional/transmission level: the rules are perceived as unclear and four of the seven companies had no established method to evaluate the costs and benefits of non-reinforcement alternatives (and several said their projects were too large for such solutions). This is a recurring theme — the connection obligation is firm and well understood, while the tools to satisfy it flexibly remain under-operationalised. The same dynamic underlies the luftbokning (speculative capacity reservation) and faktisk belastning doctrines analysed in Source - Ei R2024-14 Outnyttjad Kapacitet (2024).

Why it matters for flexibility

Because the grid company must connect on request, the binding question becomes how to honour the obligation when capacity is scarce. Flexibility — local markets, conditional connections, Dynamic Line Rating — is the means of meeting anslutningsplikt without (or before) building new wires. The strength of the obligation is precisely what makes flexibility a regulatory necessity rather than an optional efficiency.

A large-load illustration — Google at Torsboda

DN reported in September 2026 on a planned Google AI data centre in Timrå with a contractual build-out of up to 2 GW (Google’s Swedish office confirms discussions of up to 1 GW, in phases). E.ON, which as grid company cannot refuse the connection, is planning a new heavy line to the site, with applications due in the autumn. The case shows how far the obligation reaches: the connection must be offered even where it requires a new heavy line and a major rebuild, while the demand that such users co-finance new generation has no legal instrument behind it today, according to the finance-market minister quoted (Source - DN Googles Datacenter Torsboda Timrå (2026)).

Data gaps

• Whether Ei will move from supervision to binding rule clarification on connection-time limits — PM2026:05 says Ei will continue its supervisory work and analyse whether rule clarifications or changes are needed, but sets no date
• How the obligation is restated in the new Elmarknadslagen (in force 1 January 2027) versus the 1997 ellagen text
• Volume of connections actually granted on conditional/flexible terms at regional/transmission level (PM2026:05 found the tools essentially unused — a baseline of ~0)