From time to time, the energy problem of Estonia becomes a national topic. I would like to publish my vision, inspired by the opinion of Riigikogu member Mart Maastik (Fatherland) in Eesti Päevaleh from 1 August 2024, writes Eveline Lusti, a resident of Jõelähtme rural municipality. /nginx/o/2023/07/04/15434958t1h3a78.png)
Photo illustrative. Photo: Elektrilevi
From time to time, the energy problem of Estonia becomes a national topic. I would like to publish my vision, inspired by the opinion of Riigikogu member Mart Maastik (Fatherland) in Eesti Päevaleh from 1 August 2024, writes Eveline Lusti, a resident of Jõelähtme rural municipality.
I have been living in the village of Vandjala in the Jõelähtme parish, twenty kilometers from the capital, for six years now. In a village that is located one kilometer from a larger neighboring settlement. No electricity connection in the house. Our two closest neighbors have a connection from the Soviet era and lines, the current in each house is 40 amperes. In our village there is an electric pole that transmits electricity to the neighbors, where the end of the line is. Why are we without electricity?
Since we were initially offered a connection to the grid for 30,000 euros, which seemed like a fantastically large sum when the house was being built. The local power company Loo Elekter verbally assured us that when they built a new substation and added ampere capacity to it, we would get a much cheaper connection. We waited.
Now, almost ten years have passed and the situation is as follows: no substation has been built, no amps have been added, promises have been forgotten because there were no written promises. The proposed volatile offer made to us at the beginning of this year for a 16 amp connection was €187,775 plus VAT, of which the energy company applied a 50% development obligation rate to me, a sole proprietor, owner of a small plot and a house. And that is not the whole amount, because the final amount will only be formed after the actual costs.
In the Republic of Estonia, when calculating the fee for connecting to the electricity grid, there is no distinction between individuals and legal entities. It does not matter whether I am, for example, a developer of the Ülemiste district or Rail Baltica, investing in Utah or Jordan, building Auvere, or wanting to live a useful life for Estonia as an ordinary person in a small private house. Everyone pays the same. So that it is fair.
I have a higher education, I work at a school, my husband served exemplarily in the Estonian Defense Forces for almost a quarter of a century.
We produce electricity using a generator (in the summer with solar panels), which is extremely difficult and expensive. The neighbor categorically forbade using the eco-option – producing electricity using a wind turbine. My husband, an adult man with an engineering education, can no longer go to work and is forced to stay at home in the winter to produce electricity using a generator.
Winter lasts for nine months in our household – that is, the time when solar panels are useless and it is necessary to use a generator. In winter, our whole family could not go to funerals or relatives’ anniversaries, since one of us had to generate electricity at home. The generator cannot be left unattended, it must be started every day, especially in the cold season, twice a day to ensure a minimum supply of electricity in the house.
On my teacher's salary we raise our youngest, he is a schoolboy. The cost of electricity production alone in the cold winter period is more than 800 euros per month, in addition to the regular costs of bringing gasoline in canisters from a gas station located ten kilometers away. And then there is oil, and maintenance, and switches, and an inverter that does not work… For a company that has installed an off-grid system, setting up this system is not an everyday matter. And we are left without electricity. At our own risk.
The Republic of Estonia is waging war against me and my family. In my opinion, it is cruel, but legal.
Guess if we can afford to provide ourselves or our child with a decent life?
I won't go into detail about how difficult it is to use a generator that is in the yard under a canopy and is bothering one of the neighbors. An icy generator needs to be defrosted for at least 20 minutes with a hair dryer with the last of the stored electricity, then restarted, etc.
The owner of the neighboring house, who de facto lives in Tallinn himself, is so disturbed by the noise (below the permissible limits) of our generator, even after the generator has been covered, that he threatens to leave our house without electricity at all from January 1, 2025, if we do not install the generator indoors. By that time, the construction of the outbuilding will be completed. The owner of the neighboring house was able to make this demand because he tied it as a “compromise” to the issuance of a permit for the use of our residential building.
We save electricity to the last limit: in winter in our house we do not use the ventilation system, the kitchen hood, of course, there is no vacuum cleaner, dishwasher, iron, food processor, etc., etc. We save on washing (for example, a shower once a month) and laundry. I always wash the dishes with cold water. We are used to moving around the house and doing our business in the dark. To save electricity, because our electricity requires crazy efforts and costs. Do you believe that this can happen in the third decade of the 21st century?
I feel like I am at war. The Republic of Estonia does not need me or my family. It is elementary – energy, electricity helps to keep people alive. For my family, electricity is out of the question because of the exorbitant costs. What are we talking about? Even water, the basis of life, can only be obtained from a well using electricity.
The Republic of Estonia is waging a war against me and my family. In my opinion, it is cruel, but legal. However, together with my husband, I have already raised two highly educated taxpayers, the third is still a minor, studying at school. Life is so miserable that, frankly, although I have been a big fan of Estonia all my life, the fact is that my life was better in Soviet times.
In no dormitory or squalid rented apartment has my life been as bad and difficult as it is now, when we are in a daily, non-stop struggle for the most basic needs of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, so that there is no time, money or energy left for anything else. In my village house, built with great love and hope. In a Kafkaesque world, where the energy problem is only my personal business. Only the mental and physical health of my family is deteriorating.
On the eve of the Day of Restoration of Independence of Estonia.
Long live Estonia. Or not.
