Narva, the easternmost city of Estonia, is expected to declare a state of emergency on Friday after failing to procure enough natural gas for its needs,
reports ERR. A state of emergency will allow the city to request authorization from the Environmental Board to switch to other energy sources.
Narva Mayor Katri Raik (SDE) confirmed on Thursday that the city's crisis committee has discussed the situation and acknowledged that the threat of an emergency exists.
"As Enefit Power's natural gas procurement failed as of yesterday, since there weren't any bidders, we now don't have gas for the winter, and we'll be declaring a state of emergency," Raik told ERR.
As a result, she hopes, Enefit Power will be authorized by the Environmental Board to heat the city using shale oil, which is cheaper and more stable.
She admitted that this certainly isn't an argument for providing such authorization, but noted that it has to be taken into consideration that significant increases in heating costs — even if it is possible to procure natural gas — will pose a significant social problem for Narva.
Eesti Energia CEO Hando Sutter told ERR on Tuesday that a national state of emergency should be declared as soon as possible in connection with the country's natural gas supply so that district heating providers and industrial consumers could start applying for temporary and extraordinary changes to their integrated environmental permits with the Environmental Board.
Integrated environmental permits require changes in order to use shale oil or another, more polluting alternative fuel instead of natural gas to heat.
