Undersea Power Cable Between Finland and Estonia Suffers Outage, Investigation Launched

A power cable connecting Finland and Estonia beneath the Baltic Sea experienced an outage, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced on Wednesday, prompting an investigation.

In a statement on X, Orpo indicated that power transmission via the Estlink-2 cable ceased on Wednesday and confirmed that authorities were “investigating the matter.” He assured that the disruption would not impact Finland’s electricity supply.

Estonian network operator Elering reported that there was sufficient spare capacity to meet power demands in Estonia, according to public broadcaster ERR.

Concerns about undersea infrastructure in the Baltic region have heightened. In November, two data cables—one linking Finland and Germany, the other connecting Lithuania and Sweden—were severed.

Germany’s defence minister suggested that the incident was likely “sabotage,” although no evidence or specific culprits were identified. This statement was made during a speech addressing hybrid warfare threats from Russia.

The Nord Stream natural gas pipelines, which previously transported gas from Russia to Germany, were damaged by underwater explosions in September 2022. Authorities have classified this as sabotage and initiated criminal investigations.

The Estlink-2 cable had been non-operational for a significant part of the year due to damage from a short circuit, which may have resulted from the cable’s complex positioning, as reported by ERR.

Frances Ibiefo

Follow us on: