Energy, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legislation

Elering said that the EstLink 2 interconnection triples the transmission capacity between the two countries and significantly strengthens the integration of electricity markets in the Baltic Sea region.

The previous trial operation period proved that the opening of the EstLink 2 interconnection will have a significant effect on power transmission between the two countries and will also improve electricity markets' functionality and the security of electricity supply, Elering said.

After the commissioning of EstLink 2, the joint transmission capacity between the countries has increased from 350 megawatts to 1,000 megawatts from Estonia to Finland, and to 860 megawatts from Finland to Estonia. The restriction on transmission capacity to Estonia will remain in place until the reserve power plant in Kiisa is commissioned in September 2014.

During spring and summer of 2014 the contractors Nexans Norway AS, Siemens AG and Siemens Osakeyhtiö consortium, Empower Oy and Bouygues Energies & Services (earlier ETDE) will finalize the pending works and project documentation.

The EstLink 2 interconnection is owned by the transmission system operators Fingrid and Elering. The total length of EstLink 2 is approximately 170 km, some 14 km of which is an overhead line in Finland, about 145 km a submarine cable laid on the bottom of the Gulf of Finland, and about 11 km an underground cable in Estonia.

There are converter stations at both ends of the link, used for converting direct current to alternating current, and vice versa. The submarine cable will be connected to the Finnish transmission grid at the Anttila substation in Porvoo. In Estonia, the land cable will be connected to the Estonian grid at the Püssi substation in the eastern part of the country.

The total budget for the project is approximately 320 million euros, divided between Fingrid and Elering. EstLink 2 has received 100 million euros in investment subsidies from the European Union.