OREANDA-NEWS. December 03, 2013. A sales contract was concluded for the first Estonian–Finnish submarine cable Estlink 1, making Estonian and Finnish main transmission system operators the new owners of the cable as of 30 December.

The total cost of the sales transaction was MEUR 77.6.

Today, the assets of Estlink belong to the public limited company Nordic Energy Link and its subsidiary N.E.L. Finland Oy. The shareholders of Nordic Energy Link are Eesti Energia (holding of 39.9%), Latvenergo (25%), Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba (25%), and Finestlink (10.1%). The plan to sell Estlink 1 to main transmission system operators by the end of 2013 was already made upon making the investment decision; the need for this arises from the European Union regulation on transnational energy trading. The regulation included a terminal exception for founding Estlink 1 by electricity producers, valid until the end of 2013.

According to Sandor Liive, Chairman of the Management Board of Eesti Energia, Eesti Energia, Latvenergo, Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, Pohjolan Voima, and Helsingin Energia allocated the submarine cable to electricity exchange already in 2010. “We are glad that we could establish a connecting cable of fundamental importance for Estonian and regional electricity market. The completion of Estlink 1 was an important breaking point in the entire Estonian energy industry, opening a door to the Nordic energy market. The completion of the submarine cable allowed Eesti Energia to significantly increase sales volumes. Thanks to the cable, clients were assured that electricity is at any moment accessible with the best possible price,” said Liive.

For the sales transaction to take effect, the Estonian Competition Authority has to give its consent, after which the assets will be owned 50% by the main Finnish network company Fingrid and 50% by Elering as of 30 December this year.

First, the income earned will be used for paying back the bank loans taken by Nordic Energy Link to build the cable and used to fund the Estlink 1 project to 80%.

Estlink 1 is the first connection between the networks of Baltic and Nordic countries, active since the end of 2006. The Estlink 1 cable was established by Eesti Energia, Latvenergo from Latvia, Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba from Lithuania, and Finestlink (joint company of Pohjolan Voima and Helsingin Energia) from Finland.

The transmission capacity of Estlink 1 is 350 MW. The total length of the cable is 210 kilometres (two 105 kilometres long parallel cables), of which 148 kilometres are under the sea and 62 kilometres in the mainland. In the deepest spot, the cable is 100 metres deep on the seafloor.