"For increasing the reliability of Estonia's electric energy supply, we have to be fully integrated into Europe," President Kersti Kaljulaid was quoted by the Office of the President as saying. "We have been stably moving in this direction all along, but the process of synchronizing Estonian electricity networks with Europe has reached the next phase in which it would be useful to discuss things and map out specific plans for coming years. We must also for the new EU program period and agree on priority investments in this field."

The National Defence Council is an advisory body to the President of the Republic. It consists of the president of the Riigikogu, the prime minister, the chairman of the Riigikogu’s National Defence Committee, the chairman of the Riigikogu’s Foreign Affairs Committee, the chief of staff of the Estonian Defence Forces, and seven ministers of the government.

EU network integration: Estonia becoming part of a larger regional market

Over the past five years more than €800m has been invested in network integration, and in improving both the connections to neighboring markets as well as the Estonian grid’s reliability. Estonia has become part of a larger regional market that goes beyond national borders.

With Estonia being a small part of a much larger regional market, this means that supply as well as demand have to be dealt with regionally. In this context, Estonia’s domestic production capacity is small — at 8 TWh out of 450 TWh produced in the area, it contributes about 1.7%.

According to a comment by network operator Elering’s CEO, Taavi Veskimägi, made on Jun. 7 this year, Estonia’s electricity supply could be guaranteed even if its own production capacity was reduced to zero. The much larger regional market could compensate for potential deficits in Estonia.