Abstract

In spite of the liberation of the,economic development in Estonia as whole the energy sector can still be characterised in great part by large state owned enterprises, trade monopolies, overcentralized management and control, serious deformations in energy price structure, limited rights and responsibilities in management, careless attitude towards the external environment, etc. The vivid example is the electricity sector where all electricity generation, transmission, distribution and sale are on the responsibility of a state owned enterprise and even large consumers do not have a possibility to choose the other supplier (see Figure. 1). The part of enterprise dealing with energy sale has no direct responsibility for electricity supply and the part of enterprise responsible for electricity supply has not interested in the electricity trade. Electricity prices are set up by negotiations between Government and electricity supplier instead of consumers and companies. This has caused the inadequate to the costs electricity prices,not responding inside the energy system and between different consumers as well as serious deformations in the investment climate in the whole energy sector and in the Estonian economy. Because of social reasons the electricity irices are kept on a low level that does not allow to collect the means for rehabilitation nor reconstruction. Because of the weakness of state control and overcentralized management, in reality the state can not guarantee efftcient use of its property. Concisely, this does not encourage the optimum use of resources, or investment decisions based on real commercial criteria.

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Panels of

Panel 1: Policy and Programmes - Who can deliver DSM?

Panel 2: Programme Evaluation

Panel 4: Human Dimensions

Panel 3: Market Transformation: Innovation, Development and Dissemination

Panel 6: Transportation, Urban Planning and Land Use

Panel 5: Energy Policy for a Sustainable Environment