Last November, system operator Elering submitted an application to the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture to initiate a special planning procedure to enable a 330-kilovolt high-voltage line from Rehemäe to Aulepa and the necessary buildings to be constructed for EstLink 3.

EstLink 3 will be moored in the municipality of Lääne-Nigula in Aulepa, where a converter station will be built. From there a high-voltage line will be constructed to Rehemäe. Feedback from the municipality and other parties is currently being sought, said Kaidi-Kaisa Kaljuveer, head of state planning at Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.

"We have received feedback from the local government there, they want to give us feedback by mid-March. Unfortunately we cannot move forward with it before then. We are hoping that by mid-March they will be ready to give us the feedback so that we can send the draft special planning proposal to the government. I hope we are talking about that happening in spring, over the coming months, not the end of spring," Kaljuveer said.

Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Erkki Keldo (Reform) also said that it is necessary to move ahead with the EstLink 3 specific planning procedure as soon as possible. "If we are talking about cheaper energy prices in the future, it is important to establish the EstLink 3 connection, and all the planning has to be done for that," he said.

The overhead line between the Rehemäe substation and the Aulepa converter substation, which is necessary for the establishment of the EstLink 3 electricity interconnection, is planned as a 330-kilovolt overhead line, which must be able to carry all the capacity of EstLink 3 and, if necessary, additional capacity from offshore wind farms around the main Estonian islands.

This is not the only specific planning required for the construction of EstLink 3. In December last year, the government launched a special planning project to reinforce the high-voltage grid in the Tallinn region. The reinforced network is needed to move more transmission capacity between the eastern and western regions, and a new high-voltage substation will be built near Lake Ülemiste to provide Tallinn with additional supplies. The area covered by the specific plan includes Saku Municipality, Kiili Municipality, Rae Municipality and Raasiku Municipality, and the specific plan is expected to be adopted in 2027.

Elering is expected to reach an investment decision on EstLink 3 in 2026-2027, after which it will be clear whether the project will be implemented and when the connection will be built. In principle, the new connection could be completed in 2035. To support the construction of EstLink 3, Elering is applying for EU funding.

EstLink 3 is planned to have a DC interconnection capacity of 700 MW.

EstLink 3 would consist of a direct current cable linking Estonia and Finland along with converter stations at the ends of the cable. On the Estonian side, the proposed EstLink 3 would include a DC submarine cable, an overland cable, a converter station potentially located in the Aulepa area, and a new 330 kV overhead line onshore connecting EstLink 3 to the existing 330 kV network in western Estonia.

EstLink 3 will require the reinforcement of the existing network. This will require the construction of a new 110kV/330kV substation in Tallinn, which will be connected to the 330kV substations in Aruküla and Kiisa via new 330kV lines. In addition to the construction of new lines, the existing 330kV overhead lines Kiisa-Rakvere, Rakvere-Püssi, Paide-Sopi and Sopi-Sindi will be reconstructed.

Estonia currently has two electricity interconnections with Finland – EstLink 1 and EstLink 2 – with a combined transmission capacity of around 1,000 MW. Both are owned by Elering and the Finnish system operator Fingrid.

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