Finance Minister Mart Võrklaev announced on Thursday that he wants government approval to list Eesti Energia subsidiaries Elektrilevi and Enefit on the stock exchange and to privatize another part of Enefit Green on the stock exchange.
Juhan Parts told ERR that Võrklaeva’s idea is to deceive the Estonian public. He noted that Elektrilevi is a natural monopoly and instead of listing it on the stock exchange it should be ensured that there is normal electricity everywhere.
“There is no way that these grid lines can no longer be kept clean to a certain level. This [probleem] it was like this ten years ago, then the company received all kinds of tasks to ensure all this, but now the same things are happening again,” he didn’t understand.
Some parties have pointed out that Estonia is not so big and unfathomable that it cannot solve these basic things, it is a question of clumsiness. He stressed that the country’s long-standing desire to separate Elektrilevi from Eesti Energia also has an influence.
“It is known that the Prime Minister always wanted to separate Elektrilevi, he is always fighting with Eesti Energia. This is a state company! There is always a fight with Elektrilevi, the company was put in a stressful situation. Instead to give an unequivocal standard, it is about separation,” he criticized.
According to Parts, the board, board of directors or general assembly of Elektrilevi should give the company very clear instructions to ensure the cleanliness of the grid lines, because Estonia is not so big that if a forest grew somewhere , it would not be possible to clean the underpasses.
The former head of government said that the Elektrilevi issue must be considered in the broader context of the entire energy sector: it is not known where we will actually get the necessary capacity for the next 30-40 years, because before investing in renewable energy energy, there must be an answer to the question of where the controllable capacity will come from, the volume of which must be peak load plus 10%.
“There is no answer to this question, everyone talks about some kind of low-cost renewable energy. Many times I have to say that renewable energy is the most expensive, because reserve capacities must be included in it – this means additional investments in the network,” Said in parts. “In light of this, taking Elektrilevi on the stock exchange is a completely useless replacement operation. Võrklaev must be listed on the stock exchange! First Võrklaev and Kaja Kallas on the stock exchange, then we’ll see.”
He added that one should not accept the kind of circus the government is doing.
“There is this traveling theater called Eesti 200. Has Tiit Riisalo already worked out his plan? He threatened to have his own plan. The economy is collapsing in the 17th quarter, in foreign policy a failure is starting to follow the more – 30 years after independence we have reached such a political level,” Parts criticized.
When asked where to find the money Elektrilevi needs for investments, he replied that there are three sources: first, the electrification of the railway in Koidula and Narvan, which costs one and a half billion euros, should be canceled.
“First of all, we will ensure basic electricity supply and until then normal locomotives will run,” he explained.
Secondly, he emphasized the billions of the green revolution, which are spent on all kinds of things and could also be spent on Elektrilevi investments, because one of the prerequisites of this revolution is the electrification of all activities throughout the country.
“This is an extraordinary situation where ten years of hardship has led to a shortage of investment. Why play this network fee game when the situation is like this. Maybe there needs to be some sort of one-off investment injection” , Parts said.
He jokingly added that the third option is the sale of Võrklaeva’s shares and that Margus Tsahkna, president of Riisalo and Eesti 200, should conduct rapid training to retrain redundant officials from the climate ministry and communications specialists from state offices to become electricians as ordered.
Nõgene: When Elektrilevi goes public, the money collected from consumers will be paid as dividends
The head of Tallink, Paavo Nõgene, also sharply criticized the idea of listing Elektrilevi on the stock exchange and wondered on social media what would be best for the Estonian people and society from Elektrilevi’s listing.
“Is it because the company has clearer capital return requirements/expectations that will satisfy shareholders when it goes public? Perhaps dividends will be paid to shareholders in the future, rather than investing the money raised from consumers into network development? This means that the does network maintenance/development become more expensive?” she wrote.
Nõgene also noted that after privatization, politicians will be able to avoid the problem of a listed company in the event of a blackout.
“As in the case of TS Laevad, a subsidiary of the Port of Tallinna, listed on the stock exchange, you have to make money about eight million euros a year in profit, let’s lower the price of ferry tickets by that amount”, he gave an example.
Finance Minister Mart Võrklaev said on Thursday he wants government approval to list Eesti Energia subsidiaries Elektrilevi and Enefit and to privatize another part of Enefit Green on the stock exchange.
According to the minister, the listing of Elektrilevi on the stock exchange would have three objectives: it would help increase the independence of the company’s management, a partial sale would provide additional funds to Eesti Energia and, most importantly, Elektrilevi would receive additional funds to increase the amount of investments .
“The money would be added in such a way that if we sell existing shares, from which the money goes to Eesti Energia, but if we also issue new ones, from there it will be possible to bring more money into the company,” Võrklaev reasoned.
The chairman of the board of directors of Elektrilevi, Mihkel Härm, has already told the ERR that, according to the development plan, Elektrilevi should invest 150-200 million euros per year in the coming years to increase job security Work. The tariff currently in force guarantees 34 million euros per year for investments, but using the replacement value the investment capacity would increase by over 250 million euros per year.
The Competition Authority issued an injunction to Elektrilevi in relation to large-scale power outages, as during the monitoring procedure it identified a number of shortcomings in the elimination of network connection interruptions and in the management of crisis.
2023-12-22 13:17:00
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