According to Reigo Kebja, a member of Elering's management board, system operator teams have been working through the night to pinpoint the exact location of the fault.

"We have conducted several diagnostics and measurements on both the Estonian and Finnish sides, focusing on locating the fault in the connection cable," Kebja said.

On Thursday morning, Fingrid updated a market participant notice on the Nord Pool UMM platform, stating that the connection is expected to remain out of service until the end of the year. The notice will be updated as new information becomes available.

The disconnection does not affect electricity supply security, as the system is designed to handle the failure of external connections at any time. System operators are prepared for such situations as part of their daily operations. Sufficient production capacity, reserves and import capabilities are available in Estonia and the Baltic states to meet national consumption needs.

Fingrid: More clarity expected by midday

Fingrid also confirmed that the cause of the disconnection between Finland and Estonia remains undetermined.

"The cause of the fault has not yet been identified, but we are currently investigating the cable. By midday, we should have more information. The Border Guard and the National Bureau of Investigation have also launched inquiries," said Arto Pahkin, Fingrid's control room manager, in an interview with Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.

The direct current link between Finland and Estonia, EstLink 2, went offline on Wednesday at 12:26 p.m. At the time of the disconnection, the power flow from Finland to Estonia was 658 megawatts. Fingrid reported shortly after the incident that the possibility of vandalism cannot be ruled out.

"Last year, a fault occurred at the end of January and lasted throughout February, March, April and several months beyond that. During that period, as is the case now, there were no risks to Estonia's electricity supply security," Kebja said.

However, he confirmed that the incident will clearly impact electricity prices. In the short term, the effect could be threefold – negative, neutral or positive. Kebja noted that during the previous extended EstLink 2 outage, the final price of electricity increased by about 10 percent over the period.

"Thus, a price impact may clearly occur, but predicting its exact nature is very difficult. Other market participants are certainly better equipped to assess this," Kebja acknowledged.

When asked whether submarine cables, which are essentially a guarantee of national security, could be protected to prevent ships from damaging them, the Elering representative stated that safeguarding these cables presents an enormous challenge.

He explained that Elering operates approximately 300 kilometers of underwater electricity and gas infrastructure. Placing a vessel or some other form of guard at every meter or kilometer of this infrastructure would be extremely difficult.

"While we do not want to jump to conclusions about whether this specific fault is related, the fact remains that protecting maritime infrastructure against malicious attacks is a highly complex and significant challenge. We work closely with other state institutions specializing in maritime and underwater security to address this," Kebja said.

He added that it is very difficult to predict when the cable will be repaired, as investigations into the fault are still ongoing. The timeline depends on the exact type and location of the fault. Once that information becomes clear, Elering will share it, Kebja confirmed.

The Finland-Estonia direct current connection, EstLink 2, went offline on Wednesday due to an emergency, and while the cause of the fault remains unknown, Finnish media reported that a Hong Kong cargo ship and a Russian tanker belonging to Russia's shadow fleet were near the cable at the time of the incident.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!