TALLINN, Aug 15, BNS – Investments made by Estonia's state-owned power distribution network operator Elektrilevi in the first six months of this year to increase the security of supply and develop connections decreased by 26 percent compared to the same period in 2023 to 55.6 million euros.

The sales revenue of Elektrilevi's network service amounted to 143.2 million euros, 3.9 percent more than in the first half of last year. The amount of electricity provided to the grid through the Elektrilevi network exceeded 639 megawatts in May, the company said in a press release on Thursday.

"Elektrilevi has invested 444 million euros in the last 3.5 years, which is significantly more than the network service tariff allows, as a result of which our debt burden increased by 97.7 million euros during the same period. It is clear that it is not possible to keep on borrowing indefinitely. Therefore,  we have had to significantly reduce the volume of investments this year," Elektrilevi CEO Mihkel Härm said.

"The recent winters, as well as the heavy rainfall and thunderstorms this summer, sharply remind us that climate change is new reality, which also leads to disruptions in power grids. We must decide whether to continue investing in weather-resistant grid or focus on repairing outages. However, it is clear that building a weather-resistant grid across all of Estonia requires investments that today's tariff does not cover," the CEO noted.

As at the end of June, 418 new electricity producers had joined the grid. In total, there are 21,688 electricity producers in the Elektrilevi grid, including 12,468 micro-producers.

"We see that the peak time of generation is over, and today connections are primarily being requested to cover one's own electricity consumption rather than for selling electricity to the grid," Härm noted.

The generating capacity connected to the grid now stands at 889 megawatts. The maximum capacity provided to the grid by electricity producers was 639.5 megawatts in the second quarter, almost 132 megawatts or 26 percent higher than in the same period last year.

"Elektrilevi has made a great effort to connect generating parties to the grid. In the second quarter, there were periods when distributed electricity production was so high that 53 percent of the electricity produced in the Elektrilevi grid reached the main grid," he said.

The electricity produced in Elektrilevi's network is generated mainly from renewable sources.

Elektrilevi's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) totaled 22.8 million euros in the second quarter, 25 percent less than in the same period last year. EBITDA for the first half of the year totaled 55.2 million euros, 0.8 percent less than in the first six months of 2023.

Tallinn newsroom, +372 533 38403, majandus@bns.ee

Baltic News Service