Estlink is a set of
HVDC
A high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system uses direct current (DC) for electric power transmission, in contrast with the more common alternating current (AC) transmission systems. Most HVDC links use voltages betwe ...
submarine power cable
A submarine power cable is a transmission cable for carrying electric power below the surface of the water.[Estonia
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...]
and
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
. Estlink 1 was the first interconnection between the
Baltic
Baltic may refer to:
Peoples and languages
*Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian
*Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...
and
Nordic
Nordic most commonly refers to:
* Nordic countries, the northern European countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and their North Atlantic territories
* Scandinavia, a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern ...
electricity market
An electricity market is a system that enables the exchange of electrical energy, through an electrical grid. Historically, electricity has been primarily sold by companies that operate electric generators, and purchased by consumers or electr ...
s followed by Estlink 2 in 2014. The main purpose of the Estlink connection is to secure power supply in both regions to integrate the Baltic and Nordic energy markets.
Estlink 1
History
First plans for a submarine power cable between the Baltic and the Nordic regions were proposed in 1990s. Negotiations between Eesti Energia
Eesti Energia AS is a public limited energy company in Estonia with its headquarters in Tallinn. It is the world's biggest oil shale to energy company. The company was founded in 1939. As of 2014, it operates in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Fi ...
, Pohjolan Voima, Helsingin Energia
Helen Oy, stylized as HELEN, formerly known as Helsingin Energia ( Finnish) and ''Helsingfors Energi'' ( Swedish), is one of the largest energy companies in Finland. The company, founded in 1909 produces and sells electricity, district heating and ...
, Graninge (now E.ON Sverige), Latvenergo
Latvenergo is a state-owned electric utility company in Latvia. Latvenergo Group provides energy supply services in the Baltics.
Overview
The Group comprises the parent company Latvenergo AS, with decisive influence, and five subsidiaries. ...
, Statkraft
Statkraft AS is a hydropower
Hydropower (from Ancient Greek -, "water"), also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is ac ...
and TXE Nordic Energy, a subsidiary of TXU (now Energy Future Holdings Corporation) started In 1999, and on 9 October 2001 a contract was signed in Tallinn.[
] However, only after the harsh winter of 2002–2003 which resulted in an increased demand for power, the project of the submarine cable between Estonia and Finland got a boost.[
][ The letter of intention for underwater sea cable was signed between Eesti Energia, Pohjolan Voima, Helsingin Energia and Latvenergo on 31 March 2003.][
] In May 2004, the Lithuanian power company Lietuvos Energija
Ignitis Group (Ignitis grupė AB; former name: Lietuvos Energija UAB) is a state-owned energy holding company located in Vilnius, Lithuania. The Group’s core business is focused on operating Lithuania’s electricity distribution network (Network ...
agreed to participate in the project, shortly after which the project company AS Nordic Energy Link was established.[
][
] On 29 April 2005, the Estlink project was launched.[
][
] Construction of Harku converter station and land cable installation begins on 5 April 2006.[
] The submarine cable was laid in September 2006.[
][
] The Estlink cable was inaugurated on 4 December 2006 and it became fully operational on 5 January 2007.[
][
]
The Estlink 1 cable was operated by AS Nordic Energy Link company, founded by Baltic and Finnish power companies. The main shareholder was Eesti Energia with 39.9% of the shares, Latvenergo and Lietuvos Energija had 25% each, and the remaining 10.1% was divided between Pohjolan Voima and Helsingin Energia (operating through their joint project company Finestlink). On 30 December 2013 the interconnector was sold to the transmission system operator
File:Electricity grid simple- North America.svg, 380px, Simplified diagram of AC electricity grid from generation stations to consumers in North America
rect 2 243 235 438 Power station
rect 276 317 412 556 Transformer
rect 412 121 781 400 Elect ...
s Elering
Elering AS (former name: OÜ Põhivõrk) is a national transmission system operator for electricity and natural gas with headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia. The managing director of Elering is Taavi Veskimägi.
History
Elering was established ...
and Fingrid
Fingrid Oyj is a Finland, Finnish national electrical grid, electricity transmission grid operator. It is owned by the Finnish state (53.1%) and various financial and insurance institutions (46.9%).
In 2011, power companies Fortum Power and Heat ...
.[
]
Description
The long (including under water) +/-150 kV, 350 MW HVDC link cable is connected to the Estonian electrical system at the Harku 330 kV converter station and to the Finnish transmission network at Espoo
Espoo (, ; ) is a city in Finland. It is located to the west of the capital, Helsinki, in southern Uusimaa. The population is approximately . It is the most populous Municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. Espoo is part of the Helsi ...
400 kV converter station in Järvikylä using HVDC Light transmission technology.[
][
] The installation of land cable began on 4 May 2006 in Harku
Harku () is a small borough () in Harku Parish, Harju County, northern Estonia. As of the 2011 census, the settlement's population was 868, of which the Estonians were 539 (62.1%).
Harku was first mentioned probably in 1242 as ''Harkua''.
Th ...
. The submarine cable was laid on the seabed of the Gulf of Finland
The Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. ...
in the autumn of 2006. The cable's maximum depth on the seabed is .
The cable was manufactured by ABB
ABB Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd., and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, and the SIX Swiss Excha ...
.[ The submarine cable was laid by ]Global Marine Systems
Global Marine Group is a British-headquartered specialist provider of installation, maintenance and repairs of submarine communications cable, submarine communications cable for the telecommunications, oil & gas and deep sea research industries. ...
using the '' CS Sovereign''.[ The project cost €110 million.][
]
Sites
Estlink 2
History
A preliminary agreement on EstLink 2 was signed between Elering and Fingrid on 15 February 2010 in Tallinn.[
][
] Capital investment decision by Fingrid was made on 20 May 2010.[
] A construction agreement was signed on 1 November 2010.[
]
On 23 December 2010, the contract to manufacture and install the subsea and underground cables was awarded to Nexans
Nexans S.A. is a global company in the cable and optical fibre industry headquartered in Paris, France.
The group is active in four main business areas: buildings and territories (construction, local infrastructure, smart cities / grids, e-mobi ...
, the contract to build converter stations was awarded to Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...
, the contract to build the Nikuviken cable terminal station and to expand the Anttila substation in Finland was awarded to Empower Oy, and the contract to build the transmission line between Anttila and Nikuviken was awarded to ETDE, a part of Bouygues
Bouygues S.A. () is a French engineering group headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Bouygues is listed on the Euronext, Euronext Paris exchange and is a blue chip (stock market), blue chip in the ...
.[
][
][
][
]
Laying of the cable started on 15 October 2012 and it is laid by the cable ship ''Nexans Skagerrak''.[
][
] The cable testing started on 22 October 2013.[
] A trial operation started on 6 December 2013 and continued until 6 February 2014 after which it started commercial operations.[
] It was officially inaugurated on 6 March 2014.[
][
]
The cable experienced an outage on 26 January 2024 originating from the Estonian coast. After repair work was concluded, the connection resumed commercial operation on 4 September 2024.
Incident in December 2024
On 25 December 2024, an unplanned outage in Estlink 2 reduced the Estonia–Finland cross-border capacity from 1,016 MW to 358 MW.Fingrid
Fingrid Oyj is a Finland, Finnish national electrical grid, electricity transmission grid operator. It is owned by the Finnish state (53.1%) and various financial and insurance institutions (46.9%).
In 2011, power companies Fortum Power and Heat ...
expects the outage to last until August 2025.Petteri Orpo
Antti Petteri Orpo (; born 3 November 1969) is a Finland, Finnish politician currently serving as the prime minister of Finland since 2023 and as the leader of the National Coalition Party since 2016. He briefly served as speaker of the Parliame ...
confirmed that authorities were investigating the incident.
At early evening, the Finnish Border Guard
The Finnish Border Guard (FBG, ; ) is the agency responsible for enforcing the security of Finland's borders.
Duties
Main duties of the Finnish Border Guard:
* Protecting the land borders and territorial waters of Finland from unauthorised e ...
escorted the tanker , a part of Russia's shadow fleet according to Lloyd's List
''Lloyd's List'' is one of the world's oldest continuously running journals, having provided weekly shipping news in London as early as 1734. It was published daily until 2013 (when the final print issue, number 60,850, was published), and i ...
, to Porkkalanniemi
Porkkalanniemi (), often referred to simply as Porkkala (), is a peninsula in the Gulf of Finland, located at Kirkkonummi (Kyrkslätt) in Southern Finland.
The peninsula had great strategic value, as coastal artillery based there would be abl ...
. By early morning on 26 December, both vessels were still near Porkkala.
A statement released by the European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
described the ''Eagle S'' as part of Russia's shadow fleet.
Description
The total length of Estlink 2 is , including a long offshore cable, a long onshore cable in Estonia, and of overhead lines in Finland.[ The long underground cable starts at the Püssi substation and runs the coast of the Gulf of Finland at Aseri. From there the long offshore cable runs to the Nikuviken cable terminal station in Finland. The Nikuviken cable terminal station is connected with the Attila converter station by the long overhead line, which is installed on 63 pylons.][
Estlink 2 is a classic bidirectional monopolar high-voltage direct current connection with line-commutated converter ]thyristor
A thyristor (, from a combination of Greek language ''θύρα'', meaning "door" or "valve", and ''transistor'' ) is a solid-state semiconductor device which can be thought of as being a highly robust and switchable diode, allowing the passage ...
s. Its maximum transmission rate is 650 MW and it operates with a voltage of 450 kV.[ Its estimated cost was about €320 million, of which converter stations cost €100 million and cable €180 million.][ The European Commission has decided to allocate €100 million to the project.][
]
Sites
Waypoints of overhead line in Finland
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Estlink 3
On June 28, 2022, Elering and Fingrid signed a memorandum of understanding to begin planning for a third submarine cable, EstLink3, with a capacity of up to 1000 MW, expected to be completed by 2035.
See also
* Balticconnector
Balticconnector is a bi-directional natural gas pipeline between Ingå, Finland and Paldiski, Estonia operated by Gasgrid Finland and Elering. It connects the Estonian and Finnish gas grids, and provides Finland with access to the Inčukaln ...
(gas pipeline between Estonia and Finland)
* NordBalt
NordBalt (also formerly known as SwedLit) is a submarine power cable between Klaipėda in Lithuania and Nybro in Sweden, operating since 2015. The purpose of the cable is to facilitate the trading of power between the Baltic and Nordic electr ...
(between Lithuania and Sweden)
* Fenno-Skan (between Finland and Sweden)
* Baltic Cable
The Baltic Cable is a monopolar HVDC power line running beneath the Baltic Sea that interconnects the electric power grids of Germany and Sweden. Its maximum transmission power is 600 megawatts (MW).
The Baltic Cable uses a transmission volt ...
(between Germany and Sweden)
* SwePol
SwePol is a -long monopolar high-voltage direct current (HVDC) submarine cable between the Stärnö peninsula near Karlshamn, Sweden, and Bruskowo Wielkie, near Słupsk, Poland. The link was inaugurated in 2000 and can transmit up to 600&nb ...
(between Poland and Sweden)
* List of HVDC projects
Electric power transmission through interconnectors using high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) involves usually two converter stations and a transmission line. Generally overhead lines are used, but an important class of HVDC projects use subma ...
* 2024 Baltic Sea submarine cable disruptions
On 17–18 November 2024, two Submarine communications cable, submarine telecommunication cables, the BCS East-West Interlink and C-Lion1 fibre-optic cables were disrupted in the Baltic Sea. The incidents involving both cables occurred in close p ...
References
External links
Nordic Energy Link
Estlink 2 Newsletter. issue 2, May 2011
(PDF)
{{GeoGroup
Electrical interconnectors to and from the Baltic grid
Electrical interconnectors to and from the Synchronous Grid of Continental Europe
Electrical interconnectors to and from the Nordic grid
Energy infrastructure completed in 2006
Energy infrastructure completed in 2014
HVDC transmission lines
Submarine power cables
Connections across the Baltic Sea
Electric power infrastructure in Estonia
Electric power infrastructure in Finland
Estonia–Finland relations
2006 establishments in Estonia
2006 establishments in Finland
Gulf of Finland