A high-voltage power cable between Finland and Sweden is expected to remain offline for hours after a malfunction at a substation. Finland's grid operator said the cable itself appeared to be unharmed.
https://p.dw.com/p/5A5G1Finland's grid operator said the disruption at Fenno-Skan 2 was likely due to a substation malfunction, adding that the undersea cable appeared to be unharmedImage: Fredrik Sandberg/TT/IMAGOAdvertisementFinland's national grid operator reported an unexpected outage on a power cable between Finland and Sweden on Tuesday morning.
The disruption affected Fenno-Skan 2, an 800 megawatt (MW) high-voltage submarine cable linking the two Nordic countries.
A spokesperson for Fingrid later said that the outage appeared to have been caused by a malfunction at a substation, and that the undersea cable appeared to be unharmed.
Sweden's national grid operator Svenska kraftnat said the cable would likely be offline for around 18 hours. But a spokesperson told Reuters that the cable would return to commercial operation "shortly."
Europe's undersea cables under attack? To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
The Baltic Sea region has been on high alert in recent years after a number of power and telecommunications cables have been disrupted following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Authorities in neighboring countries have opened investigations into potential sabotage.
They have also pointed to the operational risks posed by Russia's so-called "shadow fleet" — the largely unregistered and unregulated oil tankers used by Moscow to circumvent Western sanctions.
Last month, Finnish authorities arrested two people aboard a cargo ship that was suspected of causing damage to another undersea cable between Helsinki and Tallinn, Estonia.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated...
