Undersea Power Cable Linking Finland and Estonia Hit By Outage

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(Map: ec.europa.eu)

A power cable linking Finland and Estonia under the Baltic Sea suffered an outage, prompting an investigation.

Writing on X, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that power transmission through the Estlink-2 cable stopped Wednesday and that authorities were “investigating the matter.” He said the interruption would not affect electricity supplies in Finland.

Estonian network operator Elering said there was enough spare capacity to meet power needs on the Estonian side, public broadcaster ERR said on its website.

Authorities have been on edge about undersea infrastructure in the Baltic. Two data cables, one running between Finland and Germany, the other between Lithuania and Sweden, were severed in November.

Germany’s defense minister said officials had to assume the incident was “sabotage,” but without providing evidence or saying who might have been responsible. The remark came during a speech in which he discussed hybrid warfare threats from Russia.

The Nord Stream natural gas pipelines that once brought natural gas from Russia to Germany were damaged by underwater explosions in September 2022. Authorities have termed it sabotage and launched criminal probes.

The Estlink-2 cable was down for much of this year to repair damage from a short circuit that may have been caused by the cable’s complex positioning, ERR reported.

Remarkable that Western power and communications cables seem to get damaged in winter time. Besides frogmen and sabotage submarines, one inexpensive technique to wreck a located cable is to run a ginormous anchor over it.



The 36-ton Seawise Giant Anchor is 7m long, 4.45m across, and 1.13m thick.

Source:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/dec/25/power-cable-linking-finland-estonia-hit-outage-pro/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

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1. Finland stops Russia-linked vessel over damaged undersea power cable in Baltic Sea

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Finnish authorities detained a ship linked to neighboring Russia as they investigate whether it damaged a Baltic Sea power cable and several data cables, police said, in the latest incident involving disruption of key infrastructure in the region.

Finnish police and border guards boarded the vessel, the Eagle S, early Thursday and took over the command bridge, Helsinki Police Chief Jari Liukku told a news conference. The vessel was being held in Finnish territorial waters, police said.

The Eagle S is flagged in the Cook Islands, but was described by Finnish customs officials and the European Union’s executive commission as part of Russia’s shadow fleet of fuel tankers. Those are aging vessels with obscure ownership, acquired to evade Western sanctions amid the war in Ukraine and operating without Western-regulated insurance. Russia’s use of the vessels has raised environmental concerns about accidents given their age and uncertain insurance coverage.

The Eagle S’s anchor is suspected of causing damage to the cable, Yle television reported, relying on police statements.

https://apnews.com/article/eu-finland-estonia-baltic-sea-power-cable-6741ef1ce9130602abac6214d7297717

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2. Great news, BRDS, thanks very much indeed. Have a safe holiday season. "C"