With amendments to the Electricity Market Act, the maximum length of a direct power line would be extended from the current six kilometers to 15 kilometers. According to the Ministry, this change would promote cooperation between energy-intensive industries and electricity producers, particularly targeting wind energy producers.
If passed into law, the proposed bill would extend the maximum length of a direct power line between an electricity producer and a consumer. Currently, direct power lines can be built up to six kilometers, but under the amendment, this distance would increase to 15 kilometers.
The amendment is primarily designed with renewable energy producers, particularly wind energy, in mind. Its aim is not only to provide consumers with cheaper electricity but also to offer electricity producers a more stable income, thereby encouraging investment.
Jaanus Uiga, deputy secretary general for energy and mineral resources at the Ministry of Climate, told ERR that the goal of the change is to promote cooperation between energy-intensive industries and electricity producers. “Wind farms can’t be built just anywhere, so the distance between consumers and producers may exceed six kilometers,” he explained.
The change has also been justified by the potential for lower final electricity prices.
Uiga elaborated that direct power lines provide producers with an additional way to sell their electricity directly to consumers, ensuring that the producer can sell their generated power.
“This arrangement guarantees stable sales revenue for the electricity producer, which is an important factor in providing certainty for investments. Consumers, in return, gain access to clean energy at a stable and affordable price over the long term,” Uiga added.
The owner of the direct power line will be responsible for building and financing the line. The costs will be agreed upon between the producer and the consumer, meaning that regular electricity grid users, such as residential consumers, will not bear these costs, Uiga noted.
Historically, in Estonia, direct power lines could only be built on the same or adjacent property. This meant that if there was a public road or ditch between the production facility and the consumer, a direct power line could not be constructed, explained Uiga.
“With the growth of distributed energy production, interest in direct power lines increased, leading to a new approach that introduced a maximum length of six kilometers for these lines. The limit was set to prevent the creation of parallel electricity networks within the service areas of network operators,” Uiga said.
However, in practice, constructing a long direct power line is a complex process that requires thorough analysis of its feasibility. “The longer the direct power line, the more coordination is needed with landowners, and the cost of a longer cable is also higher,” Uiga added.
The explanatory memorandum for the bill states that extending the permissible length of direct power lines is necessary to account for the fact that, for example, onshore and offshore wind farms generate significantly more electricity than conventional power plants, and the industrial facilities supplied through these direct lines are expected to be larger in scale.
“For such industrial facilities, especially in coastal areas where planning, environmental, spatial and other restrictions may apply, finding a suitable location can be more challenging. This justifies establishing a greater permissible distance for direct power lines,” the memorandum reads.
The law would also be amended to calculate the distance for a direct power line either from the production facility itself (e.g., a wind turbine) or from the facility’s grid connection point, as it is not always technically feasible to construct the line directly from the production unit.
—
Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!