Tallinn (dpa) - A ground-breaking power bridge between Finland and Estonia opened to commercial use on Thursday, linking the Baltic states to European grids for the first time.

"The cable was opened at midnight, and everything is going very well. So far, the link has been running at 80 per cent capacity from Estonia to Finland," Iveri Marukashvili, spokesman for Estonian power company Eesti Energia, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"Power also started moving from Finland to Estonia this morning: the cable can work in both directions at once," he added. It was not clear which of the Baltic states had bought the power, he said.

The construction of the cable has been hailed in all three Baltic states as a major breakthrough in energy security. Hitherto, the trio were only linked into Russian and Belarusian energy grids.

Relations have not been easy with either state, leading many observers to warn of a threat of energy shut-offs should a political crisis arise.

"The importance of the project lies, primarily, in the improved security of electricity supply in the Baltic states. (It) provides an alternative electricity purchase channel to cover potential deficits in generating capacity," a press release from ABB, the firm which constructed the cable, stated.

The double cable, known as Estlink, runs 105 kilometres under the Gulf of Finland from Espoo, in southern Finland, to Harku in northern Estonia. It was inaugurated on December 4, but problems in testing led to delays in commercial exploitation.

The project was co-funded by the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian national power firms and two Finnish power companies.

It is the first in a number of international links designed to break the Baltics' energy isolation. Talks are under way concerning the construction of a subsea cable linking Lithuania and Sweden, and a land-based "energy bridge" from Lithuania to Poland.

The three Baltic states and Poland are also discussing the joint construction of a new nuclear power plant on the site of a former Soviet one in Lithuania. The current plant is due to close in 2009, leading to concerns over long-term energy supply. // © 2006 DPA



Publication date: 05 January 2007   

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