Estlink 2, the undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia, was unexpectedly severed at around 12:26 local time (10:26 GMT) on Christmas Day. Although Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the outage did not affect the country’s electricity supply, Reuters said it had actually reduced power availability between the two countries to 358 megawatts from the designed 1,106 megawatts of installed capacity. The incident occurred after the suspected sabotage of two undersea internet cables connecting Finland and Sweden with the rest of Europe.
About 658 megawatts of power was flowing from Finland to Estonia at the time of the incident, according to Finland’s national electricity transmission operator Fingrid. Estonian electricity transmission operator Elering also confirmed the incident, but has not yet reported any outages.
Two undersea power cables run between Finland and Estonia – Estlink 1, located west of Helsinki and Tallinn and having a capacity of 350 megawatts, and Estlink 2, located east of both cities and having a larger capacity of 650 megawatts. Finnish public broadcaster Yle says Estlink 2 was down for several months for maintenance earlier this year, but the connection was restored in September. For this reason, Fingrid operations manager Arto Pahkin said the actions of external forces cannot be ignored.
“The possibility of sabotage cannot be ruled out. However, we are investigating the situation as a whole and will provide information when a cause is identified, says Pahkin. He also added that “an investigation has been launched into the incident.” Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo also commented on the matter, saying on X (formerly on Twitter) (machine translation): “The authorities remain on standby over Christmas and are investigating the matter.”
The Estlink 2 electricity transmission link between Finland and Estonia stopped working in the afternoon. Even on Christmas Day, the authorities are awake and investigating the matter. The interruption of the transmission connection does not affect the supply of electricity to Finns.December 25, 2024
The Baltic Sea is surrounded by NATO members, and many cables run through the area, allowing the alliance to easily communicate, transfer data and trade electricity. These cables are often marked on nautical charts to assist ships avoid them, especially when anchoring. However, although uncommon, accidental damage to these cables still happens and rarely makes the news.
However, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine increasing tensions in Europe, everyone was shocked. The situation was further exacerbated by suspected sabotage of two undersea internet cables connecting Finland and Sweden with the rest of Europe. Russia, which also has direct access to the Baltic Sea, could easily conduct operations in this area that would disrupt the alliance.
