Eesti Energia still busy fixing storm damage

Photo: Mihkel Maripuu

Last week, Eesti Energia’s subsidiary Elektrilevi restored electricity to all households; even so, repairs of lines destroyed by storm continue to the end of this week.

To sink knee-deep into slushy peat, one needs not wander far from Pärnu. One such line, with wires and posts felled by falling trees, lies on Northern border of the town. 

To get to the broken posts, a hoist-truck is set on an iron sheet attached to a caterpillar-excavator. Just recently, the forestry team has passed through, cutting fallen trees and clearing away brush. Corridor ever so neat, with two power lines proudly parallel. At Pärnu, a tree had cut them both down.

Arriving at the site, the picture is bleak. The broken post is rotten to the core – break pieces off with fingers if you will. How did it make it till the storm? Held up by the wires?

Excavator pulls out the old «stump», the truck hoists the replacement, excavator tramples the ground around it. Off to the next post! Two days and the section is fixed.

Reliability up

According to Aivar Leppind, head of Eesti Energia Northern Region repair teams, in places like this even a weather-proof insulated wire wouldn’t hold. A fallen tree would break the cable and the wires would short-circuit anyway. Also, the line-corridor cannot be cut so wide as to keep trees from falling into wires. «Landowners would not allow that,» said he.

We spot a couple of birches, quite tall and leaning towards the lines. In a few years, probably, it’s their turn to break the lines.

The storm of two weeks ago cut power off of 160,000 household. It took Eesti Energia over a week to restore power; to get everything over with, they need several days more. Pärnu and Viljandi were the worst, followed by Valga, Võru and Põlva County. And Saaremaa.

To the praise of Elektrilevi, be it said that lines are getting more reliable every year. In 2010, power was off for 122 minutes, average; in 2011 it was 117 and in 2012 – 96 minutes. According to Elektrilevi press representative Kaarel Kutti, in normalcy the company is able to fix 75 per cent of power outages. 

Knowing such data will hardly solace folks in depths of woods. In Pärnu County, a company operating country stores had them all without power after the storm surged through. The longest outage was suffered by a store named Tali, with €300 worth of foodstuff spoiled as the fridge melted.

200 brigades on missions

Mr Leppind said that as the last storm started, all employees were sent to the lines – fixing crews assisted by every Eesti Energia electrician usually responsible for checking electric meter readings. With a power line one kilometre long, one has to begin by finding the damaged spot and issuing a description.

At peak times, post-storm, 187 brigades were out on duty. The men are never enough; still, Eesti Energia claims there are not many more trained guys around. This year, the company invests close to €100m into the network. As a rule, the ones who build the network are the ones to fix it during storms. Law prescribes the length of outages for which clients have to be compensated. As owner of the enterprise, economy ministry has advised that all profits be invested into quality of network.

But are Elektrilevi’s investment goals and plans ambitious enough? This is directly assessed by Competition Authority alone, who, when ratifying network tariffs, also provides assessment of the investments programme. 

Lines network outdated

Consumers are free to draw comparisons, however, by gut feeling. In Imatra Elekter network, around Lihula, in Southern part of Lääne County, 400 households lost power. Even so, according to CEO Märt Jemmer, all got it back in less than 24 hours. In the neighbouring Koonga, Pärnu County, networks operated by Eesti Energia, restoring power took days. Hearing the comparison, Competition Authority head Märt Ots thought that Imatra is able to make repair teams work more effectively. «One can always do better,» said he.

Mr Ots had no explicit critique to utter towards investments programmes and actions in the storm. Rather the opposite: as compared to the January storm of 2005, Estonian power supply is much better.

Eesti Energia is plagued by the very old lines network. 16 per cent of power lines are over 40 years old and in need of immediate replacement. A further 38 per cent are aged 30–40, thus to be replaced within a decade. Total length of lines amounts to 61,000 kilometres.

The other problem is that lines network is «Soviet». Once upon a time, there were the collective farms. Now – just some single households. On the one hand, investments would be needed. On the other hand, a fifth of the capacity of medium voltage lines and a tenth of low voltage lines stands idle. Pursuant to such data the company has overinvested, as if.