The electricity connection EstLink 2 is back in operation from Wednesday

EstLink 2 repair work has been successfully completed and according to the updated Urgent Market Messages, the work will end today, September 3. The electricity connection between Estonia and Finland is scheduled to be put into operation on Wednesday, September 4.

"The cable repair work has been completed and the preparatory work for energization of the cable has been done. Testing of the cable was started yesterday and will continue today, which is a prerequisite for restarting the connection. If there are no fallbacks as a result of the tests, the connection will be available to the market from tomorrow," said Reigo Haug, Head of the EstLinks unit.

In order to eliminate the fault that occurred in the shoreline of the Estonian submarine cable, it was necessary to replace a cable section with a length of approximately 300 meters with a spare cable and connect it to the existing cable line. The construction of the sea-side (marine cable) joint was completed from the platform built in the coastal sea at the beginning of August, and by now the shore-side sea-land cable connection joints have also been completed.

In order to carry out the repair of a cable with paper-oil insulation, it was necessary to involve special equipment and personnel with special training and experience from the cable manufacturer. Norwegian and Estonian subcontractors played a key role in the successful execution of the repair work. Extensive construction work was carried out to repair the cable.

Although the repair work has been completed to the extent that the cable can be put back into operation, intensive activities will continue at the repair site for the following months. Before winter, it is important to complete all necessary backfilling, shore protection and soil work and to eliminate temporary structures, including roads, platforms, cranes and drained sea area.

EstLink 2 switched off due to a cable failure at the end of January. The exact location of the failure was determined at the end of February. EstLink 2 with a capacity of 650 megawatts started operating in 2014. Until this failure, EstLink 2 was one of the most reliable high voltage direct current connections in the Baltic Sea region.