Finland Investigates Estlink 2 Cable Outage; Sabotage Not Ruled Out

Dec 25, 2024, 05:18 PM

Finland is investigating an outage in the undersea Estlink 2 power cable connecting Finland and Estonia, which occurred on December 25 at 12:26 PM local time. The cable's capacity dropped from 1,016 MW to 358 MW. Authorities, including Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, have not ruled out the possibility of sabotage, with Fingrid's head of operations, Arto Pahkin, stating that vandalism cannot be excluded. Reports indicate that a Hong Kong-registered vessel, Xin Xin Tian, was near the cable at the time of the incident, with its speed decreasing as it passed over the area. The oil tanker Eagle S is also under scrutiny, and the Finnish Border Guard patrol ship Turva is involved in the investigation. Previous incidents in the Baltic Sea involving damage to undersea cables and pipelines have raised concerns over critical infrastructure security. The Estlink 2 cable is a vital link for electricity transmission between Finland and Estonia, but according to Prime Minister Orpo, the disruption does not affect Finland's electricity supply.