Estonia in a bid to remove the Baltics 'energy islolation' label, plans to connect the electric transmission systems of the Baltic States and Europe, according to Strategy Manager of Elering, the electric transmission systems operator in Estonia.
'We want an independent energy market. That’s why we want to be connected with the rest of Europe. We should not be only connected with each other, but also we need European connections,' said Strategy Manager Kalle Kukk at the sixth Baltic Energy Summit in Finland’s capital, Helsinki.
Kukk said in order to have more energy security, energy supplies and future projects; there should be connections between Europe and the Baltics.
He explained that Elering has two strategic goals on electricity connections. Firstly is to have a common Nordic-Baltic power market, and secondly to have a synchronous connection between the Baltics and Central Europe.
With a policy named 'Away from the east, joining the west', Estonia plans to reduce prices and become more independent from Russia on energy.
'We have Litpol 1, Litpol 2, NordBalt and Est – LV 3rd projects for the future. Most of the projects will be finished in five years' time. We already have operational interconnections with Finland and some other European countries. EstLink 1 and EstLink 2 are already operational. With the third line, we will have the same price level with all the Baltic countries,' he said.
'We need a few more years for desynchronization from Russia and the most economical way is to be remain connected. However, energy and supply security are the most important factors for us and we need these connections for this purpose.' he said, and added that the startup of new projects will not be cheap, but will be an absolute necessity.
Kukk, who also spoke about natural gas dependence of Baltic countries on Russia, said it is possible to break down Gazprom’s price monopoly with several natural gas suppliers.
'That’s why we planned three LNG terminal projects between Finland and Estonia. The Klaipeda LNG terminal and the natural gas pipeline project, named 'Balticconnector' are very important,' he added.
Finnish and Estonian governments agreed to build three LNG terminals, two large scale LNG terminals will be constructed between Finland and Estonia followed by the construction of a small-scale terminal. In addition, a pipeline, 'Balticconnector' will be laid to link gas markets in Finland to Estonia by 2019.
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency