The production of electricity in Estonia increased by a third in the previous year while consumption increased by six percent

According to Elering’s data, Estonian power plants produced 6.3 terawatt-hours of electricity in the previous year, which is 32 percent more than in 2020. Consumption increased by six percent and reached nearly 9 terawatt-hours.

In the previous year, 2.6 terawatt-hours, i.e. 41 percent, of all the produced electricity was renewable energy whose production increased nearly 16 percent in a year-on-year comparison. Production from fossil resources increased by 46 percent in the previous year.

Taavi Veskimägi, Chairman of the Management Board of Elering, noted that sufficient power plants are available for Estonian consumers to cover the peak Estonian consumption. “Even when major generating installations are undergoing maintenance or in repair as was the case in the beginning of last December, the spare capacity is sufficient to cover the winter peak consumption,” said Veskimägi.

The increase in renewable energy production in the last year was achieved thanks to the production volume of biomass and biogas of 1.5 terawatt-hours which was one-fifth higher than in 2020. Wind power decreased by 11 percent in the last year, amounting to 0.7 terawatt-hours. The steadily growing solar production amounted to 0.3 terawatt-hours in the previous year, which already comprises 12 percent of renewable energy production. In 2020, the proportion of renewable energy from solar power was at only five percent. Renewable energy comprised 27 percent of the entire Estonian annual consumption last year.

7.5 terawatt-hours of electricity entered the Estonian electricity system from neighbouring countries in the previous year, which is four percent more than in the year preceding it. 4.8 terawatt-hours of energy were supplied to neighbouring countries, which is more than one-third compared to 2020.

Total electricity production in the Baltics increased by six percent last year while consumption increased by four percent. In Latvia, the production of electricity increased two percent last year up to 5.5 terawatt-hours, and in Lithuania, production decreased by 14 percent to 4.3 terawatt-hours compared to 2020. The consumption of electricity increased by three percent in both countries – to 7.3 terawatt-hours in Latvia and to 13.3 terawatt-hours in Lithuania.

In last year’s summary, the Estonian electricity system experienced a deficit of 2.6 terawatt-hours, which means that consumption was higher than domestic production. In 2020, the deficit was 3.6 terawatt-hours. The electricity system of the Baltics as a whole had a deficit of 13.4 terawatt-hours in the previous year, which is similar to 2020 when production was lower than consumption by a margin of 13.1 terawatt-hours. The majority of the deficit is caused by Lithuania by 9 terawatt-hours.

In Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, the production of electricity increased by five percent in total last year to 420 terawatt-hours, and consumption increased by six percent to 399 terawatt-hours. The electricity system of the Nordics as a whole had a surplus of 21 terawatt-hours, which means that production was higher than consumption. The electricity systems of Norway and Sweden contributed to the surplus by 17.5 and 25.7 terawatt-hours, respectively. The Finnish and Danish systems had a deficit of 17.4 and 4.9 terawatt-hours.