Company briefs - 2012-06-21

Starting last week, the Estonian price region at the Nordic electricity market Nord Pool Spot was divided into two: NPS Estonia and NPS ELE, reports Postimees Online. While NPS Estonia continues to reflect the price in the Estonian price region, NPS ELE, or NPS Estonian Latvian Exchange, shows the price at the Estonian-Latvian border. The reason for creating the two price regions was the electricity trade bottleneck at the Estonian-Latvian border that affects the electricity trade in the Baltic States. The new situation enables the distribution of cross-border capacity more effectively and provides a more transparent and understandable solution to traders.

The European Commission sent an official demand to Estonia to fulfill the EU legislative acts that require that a clear line be drawn between institutions that regulate the telecommunications market and institutions that offer telecommunications services, reports Postimees Online. According to the EU telecommunications regulations, the state’s regulatory institutions cannot be among owners of telecommunications companies nor participate in managing them. In Estonia, radio frequencies, numeration resources and universal service providing is administered by the Economy and Communications Ministry. It also controls the state-owned company Levira Ltd., which provides telecommunications services like broadcasting and wireless broadband connection.

Estonian state-owned energy giant Eesti Energia’s board decided at a meeting last week to apply for a natural gas sales license in Estonia and Lithuania, reports Postimees Online. “Since the development of the gas market in Estonia and the Baltic states considerably affects our main businesses, we have started to create a gas market competence in Eesti Energia,” said Eesti Energia gas business direction manager Aivar Tihane. He added that natural gas as a fuel is already a part of the company’s business activity, but when looking into the future, participation in the gas market is considered important, including combined sales of electricity and gas, i.e. the “dual fuel” sale. “We have launched legal preparations to practically test the open gas markets in the Baltic states,” he added.