Energy, Estonia, EU – Baltic States

The amount of power outages has not decreased over the years. Eesti Energia Jaotusvõrk (Eesti Energia Distribution Grid) does not keep it a secret that the reliability of the power grid has only deteriorated. There are places in Estonia like Voose village in Anija parish, Harjumaa, where the electrical malfunctions rate is several times higher than the Estonian average.

Eesti Energia Jaotusvõrk manager Tarmo Mere said that in order to stop the ageing of distribution grids, at least 95.9 million EUR a year should be invested, Just once, in the 2008/2009 business year, the company managed to invest around 102.3 mln EUR, while the investment has been much smaller earlier and later.

Mere said that the reason for the large amount of malfunctions is that at the end of 1980s and in 1990s, electrical grids were not renewed almost at all. Jaotusvõrk now channels all of its net profits to raising the reliability of the grids.

Jaotusvõrk has at present 60,000 km of electrical lines and 21,000 substations. “If we managed to renew every year 2.5% of the power grid, the current reliability of the grid would be preserved,” Mere said. “Actually we can renew around 1.6% and thus the reliability of the electrical grid is weakening.”