Estonian local government association believes there are severe natural gas supply disruptions in the country and that the current market measures cannot provide full gas supply, which warrants a nation-wide state of emergency, as reported by Estonian public media ERR.
The association criticized Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications’ recently published opinion that resolving the state of emergency with gas supplies is the objective of local governments.
«We find that the situation where continuous operation of district heating could be disrupted because of nationwide gas shortages cannot be solved on the local government level. A nationwide gas supply disruption or risk thereof cannot be a local level task. Even if there is gas, its price and what it means for the population makes for another problem,» said Veikko Luhalaid, executive manager of ELVL.
Although it is possible to use other fuel for centralized heating systems, this requires permission from the Environmental Board, which, in turn, requires declaring a state of emergency in the country, ERR reports.
«We find that the situation today meets at least two conditions – there are considerable supply disruptions and market measures cannot ensure sufficient supply. Therefore, we have a national emergency or a risk of one developing,» added Luhalaid.
He explained that disruptions in central heating are possible if service providers are unable to secure a sufficient volume of natural gas.
«The development of such a situation does not depend on local governments. That is why situations arising from the potential supply disruptions, both for district heating providers and local governments, need to be solved through a common state-level emergency.»
«Being able to use alternative sources of energy come winter, the matter needs to be addressed today. Based on this, we propose that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications declares a natural gas supply emergency,» Luhalaid explained in a letter to the ministry.