Elektrilevi boosts storm damage response brigades for quicker outage repair
Electricity grid distributor Elektrilevi says it has boosted its capacity to eliminate large-scale power outages during storms.
Autumn is one of the most storm-prone times of the year in Estonia, and major storms in recent years have seen large-scale outages and people, particularly in more outlying areas of the country, being cut off from the electricity grid for several days at a time.
A created crisis reserve means Elektrilevi can respond with brigades around a third larger than previously. In case of large-scale failures, they can additionally deploy the crisis reserve, of 60 brigades, including 120 voluntary Elektrilevi personnel.
Head of Elektrilevi's operations field Andres Tõnissaar told ERR that over the past year, Elektrilevi has taken several steps making it able to eliminate extensive power outages resulting from autumn and winter storms more quickly than before.
"Whereas with the various storms we have had altogether 80 to 100 brigades, we can now add up to 60 brigades more, so this means that we have a third more resources on the ground to eliminate outages. It also means that those lengthy outages, where people have been without power for three to four days; those people will definitely get power back a couple of days earlier," Tõnissaar said.
According to Tõnissaar, the company has also taken other steps to speed up the elimination of large-scale failures, including addressing the issue of fallen trees and branches, a major hazard during storms.
"We have additionally signed 70 contracts across Estonia with sub-brigades, in addition to maintenance partners, who will come to our aid during storms. So our readiness is very high for tree removal and contracts with tree surgeons who help to remove trees, so that electricians can do electrical work," Tõnissaar added.
Elektrilevi is now prepared for storms this fall, with all the steps having been taken based on the conclusions of the October 2023 storm. "We saw that in order to cope with a storm like that, the number of teams has to be much larger, to manage expectations that society has set for us," he said.
Elektrilevi plans to maintain 6,000 kilometers of power line corridors this year, Tõnissaar added. This too should mean the number of outages on the distribution network will generally fall.
Elektrilevi has an outage map updated in real time here.
--
Editor: Andrew Whyte
