Energy, Estonia

The head of the marketing and communications department of Tallinna Küte Urmas Ööbik stated that the Competition Board approved of the new price on Wednesday. “The prices will be adjusted in accordance with the pricing formula approved by the Competition Board and as the pricing components change, the price of heating will grow as well,” he explained.

According to Ööbik, the Iru Power Plant owned by Eesti Energia has raised the price of heating sold to Tallinna Küte by more than 66% in the past year and the price of natural gas purchased by the company has grown by nearly 40% in a year.

Tallinna Küte produces nearly 46% of the heating sold annually itself in its heating plants, using gas as fuel for that purpose. The rest is bought from Eesti Energia’s Iru Power Plant, the Tallinn Power Plant and other smaller heating producers.

“Due to the fact that during the summer season Tallinna Küte bought more than half of the sold heating from the Tallinn Power Plant fuelled with wood chips in Väo, the price increase implemented by the Iru Power Plant and the surges in gas prices during that period of time were not reflected in our heating sales prices for our customers,” said member of the management board of AS Tallinna Küte Priidu Nõmm. He added that as with the beginning of the heating period, the heating burden will increase for the enterprise, Tallinna Küte will have to start using heating from the Iru Power Plant and launch at full capacity its gas-fuelled power plants as well and hence the impact will be reflected in the heating prices from October 1.