A power cable connecting Finland and Estonia under the Baltic Sea experienced an outage on Wednesday, prompting an investigation by authorities, The Associated Press reports.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced the interruption of power transmission via the Estlink-2 cable on social media platform X, stating that the cause is currently under investigation. He assured the public that the outage would not disrupt Finland’s electricity supply.
Estonian network operator Elering confirmed that the outage had occurred but said that sufficient spare capacity is available to meet Estonia’s power needs.
The incident has raised concerns amid heightened awareness of the vulnerability of undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea region. Just last November, two data cables, one connecting Finland and Germany and another linking Lithuania and Sweden, were severed, raising alarm among regional governments.
While investigations into those incidents are ongoing, Germany’s defense minister previously speculated that the cable breaks may have been an act of “sabotage,” referencing alleged hybrid warfare threats from Russia, though no concrete evidence was provided.
The region is also still grappling with the damage to the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines in September 2022. Underwater explosions severely damaged the pipelines, leading authorities to label the incident as an act of sabotage and launch criminal probes.
The Estlink-2 cable itself has had a troubled year, with a prolonged outage earlier this year to repair damage from a short circuit potentially caused by its complex positioning on the seabed.
