FRANKFURT – The connection between Finland and Estonia via an underwater power cable in the Baltic Sea encountered a disruption, leading to an investigation as stated by Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo on Wednesday.
In a communication on X, Orpo mentioned that the transmission of power through the Estlink-2 cable ceased on Wednesday, and competent authorities are looking into the issue. He assured that the outage would not impact the electricity supply in Finland.
Elering, the Estonian network operator, confirmed that there is adequate additional capacity to fulfill the power requirements on the Estonian side, as reported by the public broadcaster ERR on its website.
Authorities have been on edge about undersea infrastructure in the Baltic. Two data cables, one running between Finland and Germany, the other between Lithuania and Sweden, were severed in November.
Germany’s defense minister said officials had to assume the incident was “sabotage,” but without providing evidence or saying who might have been responsible. The remark came during a speech in which he discussed hybrid warfare threats from Russia.
The Nord Stream natural gas pipelines that once brought natural gas from Russia to Germany were damaged by underwater explosions in September 2022. Authorities have termed it sabotage and launched criminal probes.
The Estlink-2 cable was down for much of this year to repair damage from a short circuit that may have been caused by the cable’s complex positioning, ERR reported.
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