Finland Investigates Undersea Cable Outage

Finnish authorities are investigating an outage of the Estlink 2 undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia, which occurred on Christmas Day at 10:26 GMT. The outage reduced the interconnector's capacity from 1,016 MW to 358 MW but did not disrupt Finland's power supply, according to Prime Minister Petteri Orpo. There are concerns over potential sabotage given a history of infrastructure failures in the Baltic Sea region; however, the exact cause of the outage remains unknown. Elering, the Estonian transmission system operator, is collaborating with Fingrid to identify the issue while ensuring the security of Estonia's electricity supply. Previous outages, such as one earlier this year, have resulted in increased electricity prices for consumers in Estonia, raising concerns about the economic impact of such disruptions. The situation is under continuous monitoring by authorities, who are prepared to utilize reserve capacities if necessary.