The Recovery and Resilience Facility of the EU allows adding 310 MW of new renewable energy capacities to Elering’s network

The support allocated from the Recovery and Resilience Facility of the European Commission allows adding 310 megawatts (MW) of new renewable energy capacities to the transmission network administered by Elering.

Pursuant to the contract entered into this week between Elering and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, the total cost of the project is 69 million euros.

According to Taavi Veskimägi, Chairman of the Management Board of Elering, the investments made with the support of the Recovery and Resilience Facility allow producers to connect new generating installations to the Estonian electricity system to the extent of 300 megawatts faster and cheaper. “In the present situation, enabling the connection of renewable energy generating installations to the electricity network is an important priority in order to ensure higher independence from imported fossil fuels in the electricity production portfolio of the European Union. Elering is hiring additional workforce for both implementing the investments of the recovery plan and for ensuring the timely deliberation of the connection applications submitted to Elering,” said Veskimägi.

Elering is reconstructing the powerful 330 kilovolt Kiisa-Paide and Mustvee-Paide overhead transmission lines within the framework of the investments of the Recovery and Resilience Facility. In the 110 kilovolt network, Elering is constructing new Lihula-Virtsu and Rõuste-Virtsu overhead transmission lines and the Võiküla-Orissaare parallel line. Likewise, the Lihula-Rõuste and Kiisa-Rummu overhead transmission lines will be renewed and the Lihula 330/110 kilovolt substation and the second 110 kilovolt submarine cable in Väike Väin Strait will be constructed.

While the total value of the project is 69 million euros, the Resilience Facility of the European Commission will currently support it to the extent of 30 million euros. The amount could be specified further on as the final allocation of funds to Member States by the European Commission will take place in the summer, and the economic performance of the Member States in 2021 will be taken into consideration during this process.

The investments to be made within the framework of the project must be implemented in 2026 at the latest. More information concerning the Resilience Facility of the European Commission is available here.