Estonia’s transmission system operator Elering has been making preparations throughout spring in order to restore the Estonian-Finnish EstLink 2 electricity interconnection in the second half of May on the Estonian coast, near Aseri, with restoring the whole operation of EstLink 2 by the end of August this year.
“We have been engaged in redesigning the problematic section of the cable, analysing the geological conditions, acquiring the technical equipment required for the work and preparing and acquiring the required permits,” said Reigo Kebja, Member of the Management Board and Head of Asset Management of Elering. “Various partners from Estonia and abroad have been involved in order to plan this large-scale and technically complex repair project.”
“Our goal has been to prepare a cut in the next section in the submarine cable at the first opportunity in order to determine the length of the cable section to be replaced and verify the good working order of the remainder of the cable,” he added. “For this purpose, we will have to perform extensive preparatory work on the coast and in shallow water, such as building temporary roads, building a temporary dam and installing a crane, opening a pit, and constructing a testing and repair platform. This includes the objective of constructing a 50-metre-long dry pool for the purpose of repair work on the coastal waters. The logistics for the replacement cable will be a significant challenge in the shallow water area. The main goal is to restore the electricity interconnection as fast as possible.”
EstLink 2 was switched off due to a failure at the end of January. The exact section causing the failure was pinpointed by the end of February thanks to the application of various technical methods.