Energy, Estonia, Industry

The 300-megawatt plant at Auvere was brought to a halt by leakages in a heat exchanger in mid-May. The plant has an annual output capacity of 2.2 terawatt-hours of electric energy, equal to more than 25 percent of Estonia's domestic demand.

General Electric (GE), which built the plant, completed warranty work last week. GE, which struggled to hand over the Auvere power plant to state-owned energy group Eesti Energia, has so far paid 106 mln euros' worth of contractual penalties due to the delay to cover the loss of revenue in connection with the power plant not being able to operate at full capacity on time. The penalty being talked about now arises from the dependability requirement, as each percentage point that the plant's performance falls short of the warranty requirement has been assigned a financial value in the warranty terms.

Eesti Energia finished the third quarter of 2019 with a net loss of 9.5 mln euros, which is attributable to longer-than-planned maintenance at the Auvere electric power plant and rearrangements concerning large-scale energy production. Year over year, net profit dropped by 20.4 million euros. The group's revenue in the third quarter grew 3 percent to 206 million euros.

The Auvere plant produced almost 300 gigawatt-hours less of electricity than planned. As a result, the group's total output of electricity was significantly smaller and revenue was not earned. The amortization and interest costs of the Auvere plant in the third quarter alone amounted to 10 million euros.

The plant is able to use oil shale as fuel to the extent of 100%, biomass to the extent of 50%, peat to the extent of 20% and oil shale gas to the extent of 10%.