UNDERSEA repair crews have pinpointed a fault in the Basslink cable and predicted a mid-June return to service date.
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In a statement on Tuesday morning, Basslink said the fault site had been located just over 90 kilometres from the Tasmanian coastline.
Basslink CEO Malcolm Eccles said forensic testing would be required to determine the cause of the fault.
He said prolonged assessment of the fault site to narrow the area down from about three kilometres had been vindicated, with crews cutting the cable just over a kilometre from the fault.
Mr Eccles said three separate jointing stages would need to be completed after an amount of water entered the cable through the fault.
The repair vessel, the Ile de Re, will travel to Geelong to be restocked over 10 days before returning to the Bass Strait fault site.
Mr Eccles said the extended predicted return to service date was due to the complex jointing work, which he said required a continuous period of clear weather.
A mid-June repair date would mean the interconnector had been out of action for six months.