Enefit Power awaiting clarification from politicans on coalition agreement
Andres Vainola, head of Enefit Power, was very cautious when commenting on the new government coalition agreement. According to Vainola, the guidelines in the coalition agreement are general and in order to provide a thorough assessment, a more detailed analysis, which is not yet available, is required.
Vainola said, that politicians should first explain to the company the changes, which have been made.
"We are waiting for a detailed review of what was agreed by the coalition. We can then immediately conduct an impact analysis on the basis of that. Of course, if this requires changes to the owner's expectations, then these changes will be made and so we will base our actions on the owner's expectations," he said.
For example, the new coalition government's pledge to put an end to the burning of wood in industrial electricity generation processes, as well as allowing only biomass to be used in local cogeneration (combined heat and power) plants, will require an impact analysis.
Enefit Power has three thermal power plants, all of which use biomass in addition to oil shale and waste gases produced from biomass. The Auvere power plant alone produced a quarter of Estonia's electricity for the first quarter of 2023.
"Auvere produced over 400 gigawatt-hours. We were able to replace 40 percent of shale oil (usage) with waste gas and waste wood. In taking this approach, the plant also performed very well, so we are optimistic. As for the use of wood pulp and waste wood, an impact analysis is needed on that too. If it ends up being decided, that waste wood or wood chips cannot be used, then cogeneration will still be possible," Vainola said.
According to Vainola, the Balti Elektrijaam, which produces both electricity and district heating for the city of Narva, would be suitable for use as a local cogeneration plant. Three years ago, Enefit Power used around 650,000 ton of waste wood per year to produce electricity.
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Editor: Michael Cole