The Government authorised the installation of submarine cable Estlink2

On Thursday, the Government authorised the installation of Estlink2, the second submarine cable between Estonia and Finland. The EUR 300 million project is designed to increase the Estonian power system’s security of supply.
Elering OÜ, a subsidiary company of Eesti Energia, will install the almost 165 km HVDC link between the towns of Püssi in Estonia and Porvoo in Finland. The installed capacity of the link is 650 MW.
Taivo Linnamägi, head of the Division of Economic and Public Property of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication said that the most appropriate location for the cable was identified in the course of long-term cooperation on the environmental impact assessment; the impact assessment ruled out many potential locations on the North coast which are valuable in terms of nature conservation.
According to the plan the project will be completed in 2013. The planned total cost of the project is approximately EUR 300 million although the final investment decision has not been adopted yet. An application has been submitted for EUR 100 million worth of support from EU.
The submarine cable running on the bottom of the Gulf of Finland is needed in order to increase the autonomy of the Estonian electrical system and the security of supply. Moreover, the transmission capacity of the existing 350 MW Estlink cable will be insufficient after the opening of the electricity market.
After the Estlink2 project is completed, all Baltic countries will be linked to the transmission networks of the Nordic and Western European countries. This will strengthen the security of supply of the Estonian electricity system and provide an opportunity to trade in electricity.
Estlink2 was designed in cooperation with Fingrid Oyi, the Finnish transmission network operator. Detailed seabed surveys will be carried out on the selected route of the submarine cable.