Finnish authorities are investigating a power outage at the Estlink 2 interconnector between Finland and Estonia that occurred on December 25. The outage was reported by Finland’s transmission system operator (TSO) Fingrid, which is working with Estonia’s TSO, Elering, to identify the cause.
Fingrid suspects a potential fault in the electricity cable and is also looking into the possibility that a foreign cargo ship may be involved in the incident. The outage affected the transmission of 650 MW of electricity from Finland to Estonia. Despite the failure, Finland's electricity system remains stable, with no threat to power reliability.
Estlink 2, a 170-kilometer long interconnector with a 650 MW capacity, was launched in 2014. It includes 145 kilometers of submarine cable, 14 kilometers of overhead cable in Finland, and 12 kilometers underground in Estonia.
This is not the first time Estlink 2 has faced issues. In January 2023, the link was shut down due to a fault in a geotechnically challenging area of the Estonian coast, remaining out of service until August. Furthermore, Estlink 1, the first electrical connection between Finland and Estonia, was also shut down earlier this year due to a technical fault.
Fingrid is expected to provide further updates on the investigation's progress later today. Meanwhile, Finnish police continue to investigate damage caused last year to the Balticconnector gas pipeline, believed to be caused by a ship dragging its anchor.