Eesti Energia has received state funding to develop a pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant.
The joint agency of Enterprise Estonia and KredEx has allocated €584,950 for Eesti Energia to prepare the construction of Estonia’s first hydroelectric energy storage facility at the Estonia Mine site in Ida-Virumaa.
The 225MW pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant is planned to begin operating in 2026. Its construction takes advantage of limestone rubble and closed mining tunnels created during oil shale mining. The plant acts as a powerful storage unit, helping to ensure energy security and stability of the power network when started up.
According to Veljo Aleksandrov, Project Director at Eesti Energia, the development is moving at a good pace: the analysis of the technical solution together with the preliminary assessment of environmental effects will be completed at the beginning of next year, followed by the preliminary design with the necessary studies.
According to the plan, preliminary design should be completed by the end of 2023 and the investment decision made in the first half of 2024.
“Ensuring Estonia’s energy security and energy independence with our own assets is more important than ever before. In view of the connection to the continental European electricity system planned for 2026 at the latest, it is extremely important that the necessary energy markets and production or storage assets be created in the Baltic States to ensure the security of supply as greenly and cheaply as possible,” Aleksandrov said.
“The international interest in Estonia’s hydropower storage is great because it is a unique project. During the next year, we will carry out comprehensive and versatile studies with our partners, supported by the applied research program of Enterprise Estonia, which must provide certainty that our solution will work.”