Power Cable Outage Disrupts Finland-Estonia Connection
A significant power cable outage has occurred on the Estlink-2 connection between Finland and Estonia, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced via social media platform X. The incident, which is currently under investigation by authorities, has not affected electricity supplies in Finland, according to the Prime Minister’s statement.
Estonian network operator Elering has confirmed that the country has sufficient spare capacity to meet power demands despite the interruption. Public broadcaster ERR reported on the situation, emphasizing that power supply remains stable in Estonia.
This latest incident adds to several recent undersea infrastructure issues in the Baltic region. Previous occurrences include severed data cables between Finland and Germany, as well as Lithuania and Sweden. Germany’s defense minister had previously suggested potential sabotage in these incidents, though no evidence or responsible parties have been identified.
The outage recalls concerns raised by the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines incident in September 2022, where underwater explosions caused significant damage. Authorities labeled the Nord Stream incident as sabotage, prompting criminal investigations.
Estlink-2 faced challenges earlier this year, experiencing downtime due to damage from a short circuit. ERR reported that the cable’s complex positioning might have contributed to these issues.
As investigations into the current outage continue, authorities remain vigilant about the security of critical undersea infrastructure in the region. The incident underscores the importance of maintaining robust and resilient power connections between countries in the Baltic area.
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