Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Taavi Aas (Center) said that alleviating the electricity price shock required adopting several broad-based short-term measures, including as one possibility a market price cap. The minister added that nuclear power feasibility analyses needed to be expedited.
Aas said in a political statement delivered in front of the Riigikogu that the electricity crisis had strongly affected people’s coping.
“Monthly price disruptions will stay with us unless we take action together,” the said.
The minister suggested that energy price hikes would reach food prices and affect jobs in the near future.
Aas urged parties to cooperate in finding long-term solutions but added that short-term alternatives are needed first.
“We also need broad-based measures, whether we are talking about a VAT cut or a ceiling on market prices, while they need to be applied simultaneously for them to have the desired effect,” he said.
While the state supports having more renewable energy production capacity among longer-term solutions, Aas added that manageable capacity was needed too.
“These decisions concern renewables, while we must also find a long-term solution for manageable capacities,” he said.
The government’s nuclear energy working group is currently analyzing the feasibility of nuclear power in Estonia which process Aas said could be accelerated.
“We need both long-term measures and decisions for short-term alternatives,” the economy minister told MPs. (ERR/Business World Magazine)
