Due to the faults detected, two of the four heat exchangers at the Auvere plant were modernized last fall. Enefit Power then planned to modernize the rest as part of the plant's regular annual maintenance at the end of September this year.

However, one of the heat exchangers, which had not been replaced, failed on the penultimate day of August, causing the plant to shut down. Eesti Energia initially wanted to make repairs in the first half of September. However, the heat exchanger leaks were found to be so extensive that the work could not be completed before the plant underwent annual maintenance.

Annual maintenance was scheduled to begin on September 25 and end on October 28. However, the maintenance period was first extended to November 13 and then November 25.

"Now, the annual maintenance work at Auvere has been extended by a few more days - according to the latest market information, the plant will start operating on Monday November 27 and reach full capacity by Tuesday," said Eesti Energia spokesperson Mattias Kaiv.

Kaiv said that the heat exchangers that were causing problems had been replaced during the maintenance work. "This upgrade, together with the heat exchangers that were replaced last year, could contribute significantly to increasing the plant's reliability," he said.

However, connecting Auvere to the grid will not be a magic wand when it comes to addressing concerns over electricity costs. The power plant's market capacity is just 274 megawatts (MW) and has little impact on electricity prices.

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