Finnish and Estonian electricity grid operators, Fingrid and Elering, have signed a letter of intent to begin planning the construction of a third subsea cable connection between the countries, Fingrid announced in a statement on Tuesday.
Once completed the EstLink 3 connection beneath the Gulf of Finland will have an estimated capacity of between 700 to 1,000 megawatts, according to the company.
Fingrid, Finland's majority state-owned electricity transmission grid operator, said work on the new link is expected to be completed by 2035.
The firm's CEO, Jukka Ruusunen, said additional transmission capacity is needed to secure the supply of the Baltic Sea region's electricity market.
In mid-May, Russia cut off all electricity exports to Finland. There is no longer any Russian electricity coming to Finland, as Finnish majority-state-owned utility Fortum had already suspended electricity imports via a transmission line to Imatra on the eastern border.
Currently there are two direct electricity connections between Finland and Estonia; Estlink 1, completed in 2006, and EstLink 2, which was completed in 2014. They have a combined transmission capacity of around 1,000 megawatts, according to Fingrid.
The company also noted it is currently building a new electricity connection between Finland and northern Sweden, the Aurora Line, which is expected to be completed in 2025.
Construction on a second Aurora Line is scheduled to begin in the early 2030s.