Technical fault puts EstLink 1 out of action until end of September
The Estonia–Finland electricity interconnection EstLink 1 is out of service due to a fault on the Finnish side and will be out of operation until the end of the month, said Elering, the electricity and gas transmission system operator.
The interruption of EstLink 1 began at 5:46 a.m. on Monday morning.
According to Nord Pool's urgent market messages, Estlink 1 will be back in operation at 1 a.m. on September 24.
Elering told ERR that, based on available information, this is not sabotage but a technical fault. The fault concerns the converter station, not the cable.
Finland's system operator Fingrid reported that the fault is in the converter station's reactor.
Elering added that when there is a large amount of renewable energy in the Baltic states, the Estonia-Finland connection does not have a significant price impact.
The price impact tends to appear in situations where renewable electricity production is low and electricity prices depend on gas power plants in the Baltics and oil shale plants in Estonia.
"For example, in recent weeks, there have been hours when the import need has been covered by Estlink 2 (650 megawatts), and during those hours last week's maintenance of Estlink 1 had no price impact. However, the electricity market can change daily, so there will certainly be some impact on the day-ahead electricity price," said Elering spokesperson Liis Eiser.
EstLink 1's capacity is 350 megawatts. The cable underwent scheduled annual maintenance last week. The connection between the counties started operating in 2007.
One cent more
Kalvi Nõu, head of energy trading at Alexela, told ERR that how much prices rise depends on how windy the weather is.
The company forecasts that electricity in Estonia will cost one cent more per kilowatt-hour, or €10 more per megawatt-hour.
The impact is not bigger because prices are not typically low in Finland either, as both the Finland-Sweden interconnection and Finnish nuclear power plants are under maintenance.
The prices could still rise for Estonia in the third week of September when maintenance is expected to end, Nõu said.
On Tuesday, the average electricity market price in Estonia was €125.7 per megawatt-hour, and during peak hours, between 8 and 9 p.m., the price rose to nearly €300.
On Monday, the daily average price was nearly €120 per megawatt-hour.
Last week's average totaled €104, while the August average was €77.3 per megawatt-hour.
Estlink 1 was also out of service last week due to scheduled maintenance. Nõu said its impact on the price of electricity in Estonia was the same — one cent per kilowatt-hour
This article was updated to add Kalvi Nõu's comments.
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