Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said an undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia was severed on December 25. This is the latest in a series of incidents involving cables and gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.
Finland's prime minister said the latest power outage did not affect the country's electricity supply.
“The authorities remain vigilant even during Christmas and are investigating the situation,” Petteri Orpo said on social network X.
The head of Finnish power grid operations Fingrid Arto Pahkin told public broadcaster Yle that sabotage could not be ruled out.
According to Fingrid, the power on the Estlink 2 cable carrying electricity from Finland to Estonia was cut off at 12:26 on December 25, local time.
Estonian Public Radio (ERR) reported that Elering, Estonia's grid operator, also confirmed the outage. Elering said the cause of the incident was still unknown and investigations were ongoing in both countries.
Estlink 2, which went into operation in 2014, is a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) line connecting Finland and Estonia. It was built to complement Estlink 1, the first HVDC line between the two countries, which went into operation in 2006. Earlier this year, Estlink 2 was shut down for several months for maintenance.
Estlink 2 has a transmission capacity of 650 megawatts, while Estlink 1 has a smaller capacity - 350 megawatts.
Two telecommunications cables near the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea connecting Sweden and Denmark were also severed last month.
The Arelion cable running from the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania was severed early on November 17, and the C-Lion 1 cable connecting Helsinki and the German port of Rostock was severed south of the Swedish island of Oland the following day.
The suspect in this cable break is the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3. According to tracking websites, Yi Peng 3 passed through the cables around the time of the break.
Earlier this week, Sweden said China had refused a request for prosecutors to investigate the Yi Peng 3 and that the ship had left the Baltic region.
Tensions have been rising around the Baltic region since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in February 2022.
