Estonia experiencing shortage of electricity, power outages possible - premier

TALLINN. Dec 1 (Interfax) - Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has warned that there may be power outages due to electricity shortages, in particular, due to the lack of electricity supplies from Russia to the Nord Pool energy market.

"We are currently experiencing electricity shortages throughout the Nord Pool region. One of the reasons is that there will no longer be 1,000 MW of electricity supplied from Russia, so there will not be more than 1,000 MW delivered to the Nord Pool region," Kallas said at a government press conference on Thursday.

Additionally, a number of important energy sources are not operational for now, including two power units at nuclear power plants in Sweden and a third reactor at the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant in Finland, while Estonia's Auvere Power Plant is once again undergoing repairs, the prime minister said.

Kallas said investment in new power sources will take a long time, and power outages are possible in the near future.

"I'm not scaring or threatening you by talking about blackouts. I am simply stating the fact that we need to cut consumption and change peak load hours. If that is not done, regional outages are looming," Kallas said.