6. NATURAL GAS
upon the first commercial sales of biomethane in Tehnika st gas station, the price of biomethane was EUR 0.82/kg, slightly higher than EUR 0.81/kg of CNG (Eesti Gaas, 2018). The Environment Investment Center also supported around EUR 2.23 million for the construction of 12 gas stations providing biomethane fuels (see next section).
According to National Development Plan of the Energy Sector 2030 (MEAC, 2017), the Estonian government has not confirmed the feasibility of promoting biomethane through a feed-in tariffs system.
Infrastructure
Gas network
The TSO owns a network of 10 gas pipelines (885 km, 43 of which transit pipelines), 3 gas metering stations and 36 gas distribution stations. The Estonian gas transmission system is connected with Russia and Latvia through three interconnectors, all one directional (flowing into Estonia). Two transit pipelines go through the southern part of Estonia (Izborsk-Inčukalns and Valdai-Pskov-Riga) to transport gas from Russia to Latvia in the summer and inversely in winter, but these are not connected to Estonia’s network.
Gaasivõrgud, a subsidiary of Eesti Gaas, is the major distribution system operator in Estonia. It operates the 1 486 km long distribution network owned by Eesti Gaas under a commercial lease contract. There are 23 other small companies running 648 km of natural gas distribution network (Competition Authority, 2018).
The Estonian gas system does not have compressor stations and is dependent on pressure being maintained from the network in neighbouring countries. Typically, the network’s pressure is maintained by the Russian system’s compressor stations in summer and by the output pressure of the Inčukalns gas storage facility in winter.
Table 6.1 Major gas network infrastructure in Estonia
Interconnector |
Maximum |
Delivery |
Utilisation |
Comment |
|
technical |
pressure |
rate |
|
|
capacity |
|
(average |
|
|
|
|
2018) |
|
Karksi |
7 mcm/d |
24-42 bar |
15% |
Capacity will be increased to 10 mcm/d |
(Latvia-Estonia) |
(73.5 GWh/d) |
|
|
(105 GWh/d) from January 2020 |
Värska |
4 mcm/d |
24-42 bar |
46% |
|
(Russia-Estonia) |
(42.0 GWh/d) |
|
|
|
Narva |
3 mcm/d |
18-30 bar |
9% |
|
(Russia-Estonia) |
(31.5 GWh/d) |
|
|
|
Balticconnector |
7.7 mcm/d |
31-80 bar |
– |
Will start operation in January 2020 |
(Finland-Estonia) |
(81.2 GWh/d) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Note: mcm/d = million cubic metres per day; GWH/d = gigawatt hours per day.
Sources: Elering (2018), Estonian Gas Transmission Network Development Plan 2018-2027, https://elering.ee/sites/default/files/attachments/Estonian_gas_transmission_network_development_plan_2018_2027
.pdf; MEAC (2018b), Regional Risk Assessment of Security of Gas Supply of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania 2018.
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