The goal of the investigation is to determine the case of the blackout as well as whether it constituted a violation of the Electricity Market Act, the Competition Authority announced on Monday.

"As this was a serious blackout, it is the authority's job to draw conclusions based on what happened, and issue recommendations regarding how to avoid similar incidents in the future," Competition Authority Director General Märt Ots said.

Transformers in an Elering substation near the border city of Narva shut off as a result of a fire on Saturday, leaving a significant portion of the population of Ida-Viru County without power. The substation failure also led to the shutoff of the 8th energy block of Eesti Energia's Eesti Power Plant and Enefit280 oil plant.

According to Eesti Energia board member Raine Pajo, the incident was serious, as only two blocks had been online at the time at Eesti Power Plant, and the Enefit280 plant produces both oil and electricity.

State-owned energy group Eesti Energia will also be forming a dedicated workgroup to investigate the shutdown of its block as well as calculate the resulting damages.

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