Synchronization with continental Europe FAQ

• Stock your home with battery powered light sources, including a flashlight and a headlamp, and keep them in a place where you and your family members would be able to easily find them even in the darkness.
• Gather enough stocks to be able to get by independently for a week. A long-lasting power outage might mean that stores, pharmacies and gas stations are closed. Payments may also be disrupted.
• Keep at home a food stockpile that you would be able to use in a situation where you don't have the possibility to heat it. It would also be of help if you had a wood stove, a grill, a camping stove or a kerosene stove on which to prepare food.
• It would be good to keep fully charged battery banks at home. These would allow you to charge your phone or a battery powered lamp. Use them sparingly and only in case of an urgency. In this way you will prolong their working time.
• Figure out the where the closest locations where you could physically turn to in case of a communications outage are: rescue services, the police station, the ambulance station, the hospital etc.
• Get a radio that works on batteries, a dynamo or solar cell. You can also listen to the news and crisis information on your car radio.

Recommendations on what to stockpile at home can be found on the olevalmis.ee web page and mobile app.

The State Agency of Medicines recommends keeping at least one month's stocks of the family's prescription medicines in the medicine cabinet at home.

Additionally, the home should have stocks of the following things necessary for the household for one week:

• antipyretics and painkillers
• allergy medicines
• medicines for digestive problems
• cold medicines
• first aid, including for treating burns.

Domestic water supply and sewage service are usually also dependent on having power, so stockpile drinking water, trash bags at home, and think through your alternative solutions (e.g. a well, natural spring nearby, wet tissues for washing yourself etc.)

You can find more information on the Olevalmis.ee web page and mobile app.

Estonian hospitals have taken up different measures to ensure the provision of vital services and access to urgent care even during unexpected power outages.

The Health Board invested €13.2 in 2023 to ensure the resilience of hospitals during power outages. For this end, they procured power generators, the working order of which is checked regularly. The main priority is ensuring the operability of all processes and activities necessary for the provision of vital services.

If there is a shortage of power supply and the consumption of power needs to be curtailed, it will take place in the following way:

• consumption is limited during peak hours, 2 hours at a time
• a pre-configured system picks automatically, by power line, the clients that are set limits, according to the volume of consumption of that moment
• objects where power is essential for human life are left out of the limitations: hospitals, care homes, homes and care homes with respirators, care homes and orphanages for children with special needs

The power companies will notify all their affected clients directly, just as they do during regular power outages. Additionally, the information is also communicated more widely in other channels of communication.

Elering notifies Elektrilevi of a need for restrictions and a deficit. After this, Elektrilevi initiates the following pre-configured system:

• consumption is restricted in peak hours, 2 hours at a time
• a pre-configured system picks automatically, by power line, the clients subject to restrictions according to the volume of consumption at that moment
• risk to human rights objects are excluded from the restrictions: hospitals, care homes, homes and care homes that have respirators, care homes and orphanages for children with special needs

The power companies will notify all their affected clients about the restrictions directly, just as they do during regular power outages. Additionally, the information is also communicated more widely in other channels of communication.

It is the common goal for all of us that the possible effects of the cuts to the people and consumers of Estonia would be minimal.

The decision on initiating a power cut is based on a deficit in consumption. When Elering sees that a deficit is forming, it will give input on this to the distribution network operator Elektrilevi.

Before giving instructions on restrictions, Elering has the task of implementing all other possible alternative measures, both nationally and in regional cooperation with other countries, the most important of which is including additional capacities. Elering, Elektrilevi and state authorities are working towards ensuring the Estonian security of supply at any point in time, and keeping the possible effects on the Estonian people and consumers minimal.

The basis for restricting the power supply is the Electricity Market Act.