Elering’s Second Emergency Reserve Power Plant in Kiisa was Completed

On July 2, Wärtsilä Finland OY handed over the second emergency reserve power plant in Kiisa to Elering; this completes an investments programme to establish a 1000-megawatt electricity connection between Estonia and Finland.

Kiisa’s second emergency reserve power plant with 140 megawatt capacity was completed more than three months before schedule – according to the original agreement, the builder was to hand over the power plant no later than at the end of September this year.

“With the completion of the emergency reserve power plant in Kiisa, the largest investment programme in Elering’s history costing more than half a billion Euros, came to an end. As a result, a 1000-megawatt electricity connection between Estonia and Finland is available for electricity consumers and manufacturers,” Taavi Veskimägi, CEO of Elering said.

In the framework of the programme, Elering and Fingrid, the power-transmission system operator in Finland, purchased EstLink 1, an interconnection between the two countries, and established a second connection EstLink 2. In addition, Elering had to strengthen Estonia’s domestic transmission grid to connect EstLink 2 with the Estonian electricity system.

The total capacity of two emergency reserve power plants in Kiisa is 250-megawatts. The first 110-megawatt unit was completed at the end of 2013. The total cost of the power plants is around 135 million Euros.

Emergency reserve power plants are needed to ensure continuous running of the electricity system in case of a failure in an electricity production facility or in an electric power import connection. The power plants can achieve total capacity in less than 10 minutes. The emergency reserve power plant will not participate in the electricity market on a daily basis.

Emergency reserve power plants in Kiisa are first of their kind in Estonia, specialising on ensuring emergency power reserves. Prior to their completion, Elering sourced emergency reserve service from Latvenergo, the Latvian electricity producer.

Additional information about the emergency reserve power plants can be found on Elering’s webpage.