"According to the current laws and regulations, there is a 1,500-hour rule for older units, and we are targeting that same rule," said Lauri Karp, head of Eesti Energia subsidiary Enefit Power. By older units, Karp said he meant the third, fourth and sixth units of the Estonia power plant.

Karp said that on Wednesday, Eesti Energia representatives met with representatives of the Estonian Environmental Board, Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Climate. A letter was also sent to the parties concerned in which Eesti Energia outlined the specifics regarding what is wishes to coordinate with the other parties.

If the Environmental Board approves Eesti Energia's plan, the energy company will be able to return the units it withdrew from the Nord Pool power exchange on Tuesday, to the market. "We want them to do the best thing they can during peak hours – supply electricity," Karp said.

According to Minister of Climate Yoko Alender (Reform), putting a 1,500-hour annual limit on the operation of Eesti Energia's older units, so that they are subject to less stringent environmental requirements means there would also be no need to relax environmental requirements to ensure security of supply.

Alender noted that when dealing with Eesti Energia's request, the Environmental Board, should choose its speed of response based on the fact that this is a vital service.

Estonian Minister of Finance Jürgen Ligi (Reform), representing the state, which is the owner of Eesti Energia, said that certain compromises would have to be made.

"I have been assured that there is no need to relax the standards, but aligning technology and standards is certainly a necessary issue. The question is whether some short-term compromises are necessary there in terms of security of supply, because the electricity supply must not be interrupted, and to ensure this you need to have backup capacity, which is more harmful to the environment than continuous production," Ligi said.

The state, as the owner, expects Eesti Energia to guarantee 1,000 megawatts of managed capacity to ensure security of supply. However, another expectation is that Eesti Energia must not violate environmental standards. According to the Minister of Climate, there is no contradiction in these expectations as Estonia's security of electricity supply can be guaranteed when some of the old units are not operating.

"Environmental requirements must be met, there is no need to relax them to ensure security of supply. Indeed, the report of the special audit showed that the necessary decisions have not been taken. Today, we are working to make sure that we have a solution in the short term, and of course we are waiting for a plan from Eesti Energia for the longer term," Alender said.

On Tuesday, Eesti Energia announced to the Nord Pool power exchange that it has withdrawn its older power generation units from the market due to emissions restrictions outlined in its environmental permit.

According to the announcement, the third, fourth, sixth and eighth units of the Estonia power plant, with a total capacity of 693 MW, are to be withdrawn from the market. The fifth unit of the Estonia power plant with a capacity of 173 MW and the Auvere power plant with a capacity of 274 MW currently remain on the market.

The decision came following the publication a week earlier of a special report reviewing the performance of Estonia's energy sector. The Ministry of Climate had previously communicated to the company that there would be zero tolerance for non-compliance with environmental requirements. It will be difficult for the company to meet environmental requirements when starting up and shutting down its older units, which emit more emissions than usual.

The third, fourth, sixth and eighth power units of the Estonia power plant rarely enter the market due to the high cost price of production. The plant's third and fourth units have for instance been on the market for a total of less than 150 hours this year, with the sixth unit online for less than 200 hours. The eighth unit has been on the market for around 2,000 hours, mainly during periods of high prices. The last time was on November 18, when Finland's Olkiluoto 3 plant was offline.

Up to now, the older units have been subject to an environmental permits without time limitations, with a lower emission rate than the units with time limitation.

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