Energy, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legislation

Technical Surveillance Authority (TSA) Public Relations Senior Specialist Anu Võlma told Äripäev that submitting the operating permit application takes unreasonably long and the board is considering the suspension of activity of Estlink 2.

The Authority expects that the operating permit proceedings have to be initiated in the first quarter of next year.

Public Broadcasting reported that Elering commented that the submission of the application for the operating permit has been deliberately delayed because even in July this year, EstLink 2 construction-related work took place and Elering has not yet received final documentation from the contractor. "We want to finish the construction project in essence in order to apply for the operating permit," noted Elering's head Taavi Veskimägi.

According to him, more important than the operating permit of EstLink 2 is the cable's technical inspection act and certificate of correspondence to requirements which were issued to the cable route in September last year.

"We will submit the operating permit application as soon as we have officially received documentation from Nexans. According to the Building Act, operating permit has to be applied when the construction is completed. We will consider the construction completed when the implementation documentation is submitted. Therefore, we cannot yet apply for the operating permit," said Veskimägi.

TSA said also that Elering did not have a construction permit for the sea part of the cable, as the design and construction took place at a time when the amendment to the Water Act came into force.

Elering stressed that it has followed strictly legal requirements in all stages of building the marine part of EstLink2. "We built EstLink 2 based on water special use permit. The interpretation that for building the marine cable, construction permit also had to be applied for, in accordance with the amended Water Act, emerged only this year," he explained and added that Elering presented in this application this year and the Technical Surveillance Authority issued it on July 17 of this year.

EstLink 2, the direct current interconnection between Estonia and Finland, was made available for commercial operations in February this year, tripling the transmission capacity between the two countries. Yet, it has been out of order repeatedly since, as the builder has been fixing a design flaw.