Disruption hits power link between Finland and Sweden

Finland's national grid operator reported an unexpected outage on a power cable between Finland and Sweden early 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 said that the outage appeared to have been caused by a malfunction at a substation, and that the undersea cable appeared to be unharmed.

Fingrid later said that the affected equipment had been inspected and that the connection had been restored, with commercial operation to resume around midday.

Baltic Sea cables in focus

The Baltic Sea region has been on high alert in recent years after a number of power and telecommunications cables were 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.

Edited by: Rob Turner