The cable break was discovered at lunchtime on Christmas Day and is being investigated by the police, other authorities and the grid operator Fingrid. The cause is unclear, but on Thursday Fingrid announces in a press release that the location of the break has been located on the part of the cable that goes underwater in the Gulf of Finland. Preparations for repairs have begun and are expected to take several months, the network operator announces. The Estonian companies Elisa and Telekom announce that three communication cables running between Estonia and Finland have also been destroyed. According to the Estonian Ministry of Industry and Communications, it should not affect consumers, reports EPN. Foreign vessels One of two foreign vessels being talked about in connection with the cable outage is the oil tanker Eagle S, which was in the area at the time of the incident, according to maritime monitoring site Marine Traffic. According to EPN, the Eagle S was escorted early on Christmas Eve by the Finnish Coast Guard vessel Turva to a location outside Porkkala southwest of Helsinki. Both ships remained there early on Boxing Day. Eagle S was on its way from St. Petersburg to Egypt. The oil tanker has previously been singled out as suspected of being part of the Russian so-called shadow fleet that helps Russia transport Russian oil, according to the British shipping magazine Lloyd’s List. Last summer, the newspaper reported that the ship poses an environmental and safety risk. “It is necessary to be able to prevent the risks posed by vessels belonging to the Russian shadow fleet,” writes President Alexander Stubb on X. Hong Kong-flagged A Hong Kong-flagged freighter was also in the area at the time of the cable break. However, it has moved further in a south-westerly direction. The incident is said not to have affected the electricity supply at the moment. The electricity system works normally, but the situation could worsen if it gets colder for a longer period, Fingrid assesses. The electricity transmission cable is 17 miles long, of which 14.5 miles goes underwater in the Gulf of Finland. The remaining 1.4 miles are overhead lines on the Finnish side and 1.2 miles are underground cables on the Estonian side. According to Estonia’s radio, ERR, among others, Estlink 2 has been out of order in the past, for large parts of 2024, due to maintenance work.
t4-general