TALLINN - Power utility Eesti Energia, announced that it has already increased its customer base by five times this year as part of its long term strategy of capturing a third of the electricity market by 2015,
"We have the serious goal of becoming an energy market leader in the Baltics, and have sufficient resources to achieve this target," said Estonian Energy Chief Aivar Tihane, in the Latvian business daily Dienas Bizness.
Though this five-fold increase in the Latvian customer count is impressive it starts from a low base. The company is now serving 40 customers, but there are plans to sign up more clients this year.
Tihane said that customers are choosing E.Energy because it can offer greater security on the stability of future prices than can Latvia's energy utility Latvenergo. "We do not depend on imported electricity or supplies, and our capacities are sufficient [to meet rising demand]," he said.
Latvenergo generates electricity at three hydro power plants on the Daugava River and two gas-fired thermal power plants in Riga, but is dependent on imports for about one third of its electricity supply, which comes mainly from Russia and Lithuania.
The E.Energy representative said that at present there is free competition in the European energy market, with freedom for producers to offer electricity across borders, and that no tariff barriers exist, either. "Our prices depend on consumption and supply numbers," he said.
"We are doing well with Latvenergo and we are planning our growth sensibly. We are selling electricity to Latvenergo. Our goal is to offer convenient solutions to corporate customers and to see that Eesti Energia becomes a developer of the Baltic energy market at such a level that there are no more talks on managing relations among operators, but that there is development of an open electricity market," said Tihane.
He considers that "If there was no Eesti Energia in Latvia, Latvenergo would continue its monopoly policy, and I think that electricity prices offered to businesses would be much higher. We have introduced healthy competition."
He claims that the company now has more than half a million customers overall and the goal is to attract two million customers by 2015. In Latvia the company has ambitious plans to win over the entire imported electricity market, which supplies about 35 percent of the country's consumption, says Tihane, adding that at present the company has about 3 percent of the market.
He declined to name the customers, but said that they are all considerably-sized firms in Valmiera, the center of E.Energy's customer base, along with activity in Riga and the surrounding region.
In 2007 E.Energy recorded 51,300 lats (72,993 euros) in sales showing a loss of 36,500 lats.
E.Energy was registered in May 2006 and is the subsidiary of Estonian company Eesti Energia.
