Eesti Energia took part in the development of the vision, according to which clean and smart energy has a significant role in the future society in order to ensure a sustainable and competitive European economy, as a member of the Union of the Electricity Industry of Estonia, the company said.

Hando Sutter, CEO of the Estonian energy group, introduced Estonia's experience with the digitalization of the energy industry by handing over the vision for the future to the European Commission.

"Estonia is one the few countries in the world where a smart electricity network and remotely operated meters are 100 percent in use," Sutter noted. "The most evident change for customers that accompanied the deployment of remotely operated meters was the liberation from having to report electricity readings. In addition, the system enables us to identify network failures much faster than before, and gives us an opportunity to manage our investments better."

Eesti Energia is ready to share its experiences concerning digitalization with other countries as well, Sutter said, noting that Estonia has longstanding experiences with e-services, which is very much appreciated by people for its comfort and speed.

On the basis of the Paris Agreement, one of the cornerstones of Eurelectric's vision is cleaner energy production.

"In Eesti Energia's strategy, we had taken climate objectives into account before the Paris Agreement already," Sutter said. "Our production has become cleaner year by year. The future of oil shale energy is oil, gas and electricity co-generation — this is the way to process oil shale in the most environmentally friendly and efficient way. By 2021, our goal is to increase the percentage of electricity produced from renewable and alternative sources up to 40 percent."

All production units used at Eesti Energia are in accordance with the European Union's strict environmental standards. An award received from the Ministry of the Environment for environmentally friendly production processes in January also attests to environmental friendliness of the state-owned company's production, the company said.

With the establishment of the vision for the future, Eurelectric has assumed the role of leader of clean energy production in Europe by encouraging energy producers and sellers to use more and more digital solutions. Eurelectric also encourages energy producers to invest toward a more economical transition to cleaner energy production and more responsive, flexible and efficient energy system.

In its vision, Eurelectric calls for stakeholders to acknowledge climate-friendly and reasonably priced electricity production as well as to adopt digital technologies in energy production and sales.