How to be prepared for power outages?
Think about how you could mitigate the effects of a power outage at home – how you will manage if your home has no power, water and/or heating.
- Get light sources that operate on batteries and keep your power banks fully charged. If possible, get a battery powered radio.
- Keep enough stocks at home to manage on your own for a week if necessary, including food stocks that you could also consume without heating it up.
- Stockpile drinking water, in case the water supply and sewage services are disrupted.
- You can use a toilet that is normally water operated as a dry toilet with the help of several layers of trash bags. Add newspapers, peat, sawdust or other absorbent materials to the bag.
- If you or your family members use prescription medicines regularly, keep at least one month’s stock of them as a precaution. You should also have one week’s stock of antipyretics and painkillers, allergy medicines, indigestion medicines, cold medicines and first aid remedies, including for treating burns, ready at home.
- If your family has a car, you can charge your phone and listen to the radio in the car as well: always keep the fuel tank at least half full.
Emergency assistance during a power outage
The emergency phone number 112 is operating during a power outage as well, but the outage could impact the quality of mobile communications.
Remember!
If you are indoors, try to make your phone calls outdoors. If you are not able to make a call outdoors either, remove the SIM card from the phone or restart the phone. Then, instead of entering the PIN code, call the emergency phone number.
Hospitals, care homes and the Emergency Response Centre are in the most important group of electricity consumers. This means that in a situation where it will become necessary to restrict consumption, the hospitals will still have power. The hospitals have also made preparations to ensure the provision of vital services and emergency assistance even during unexpected outages.
Save the battery of your mobile phone during a power outage!
- Use mobile phone services (calls, the Internet) only if it is absolutely necessary (e.g. in an emergency situation).
- Get a power bank and keep it charged.
- Close all non-essential apps and functions of your smartphone, switch off mobile data and turn on the energy saving mode.
NB! If there is no risk to your life, health or assets, but you do need information on what is going on and instructions on how to act, try calling the state helpline 1247.
The state helpline is an information number that operates in parallel to the emergency number 112, offering 24/7 information and advice in Estonian, Russian and English in situations where there is no danger to life, health or assets.
How does the local government help?
- Local governments play a very important role during crises – ensuring access to primary and vital services (water, sewage, heating, moving on roads) and the coping of people in the area.
- During a crisis, you can get information and instructions from the information channels of the local government (web page, social media, the local government’s crisis helpline etc.)
As of autumn 2024, Estonia has close to 300 resilience centres; there are resilience centres in all counties.
- A resilience centre is a working building or room of a local government or community that is located in a place where people are used to going during regular times as well: e.g. a city or rural municipality government, the library, the cultural centre, the community centre etc. – the important part is that the building is easily located and accessible.
- In a crisis situation, the resilience centre offers mainly information and instructions on how to act, as well as essential assistance – e.g. drinking water, communications etc.
- Find out the location of the resilience centre closest to you from your local government.
Are the schools and kindergartens open?
The goal is to keep the educational institutions on all education levels and modes open during a power outage. The safety of the children, students and employees of the educational institutions is primary.
Educational institutions are asked to review their crisis instructions and consider their actions in preparing for possible outages and acting during them.
If necessary, the decision on going to short-term distance learning is taken by each educational institution on their own in cooperation with the institution’s owner, based on the particular situation.
As it is difficult to organise online classes during a power outage, it would make sense to give the students, depending on their age, tasks for independent learning during longer power outages.
Students and parents will receive additional information from the educational institution.
In kindergartens and childcare facilities, it is of primary importance to ensure the safety of the children and inform the parents of the situation that has arisen. If the power outage is known ahead of time, the child will be requested to stay at home if possible (but the facility has to be open even during a power outage).
How is medical assistance organised during a power outage?
Hospitals have generator powered autonomous power supply for providing vital services.
Hospitals are also in the group of the most important electricity consumers, which means that in a situation where consumption in the country has to be restricted or rotated, the hospitals will not be switched off the power supply.
In addition to the hospitals, the care homes and medical rehabilitation clinics are also prepared for possible outages. Visitation rules are set by each institution on their own.
The work of family physicians could be disrupted during a power outage. The family health centres can also issue paper prescriptions if it is not possible to issue a digital prescription. If a family physician is unable to work and there is a health problem that requires emergency assistance or an acute chronic ailment that has flared up, you must turn to an emergency medicine department or contact the emergency phone number 112.
If it is not possible to go to a medical facility, you can also get assistance with milder ailments from the Family Doctors’ Advice Line 1220.
If you or your family members take prescription medication regularly, you should keep at least one month’s stock of them at home.
- It could happen that payments are also not working during a power outage, and it is not possible to withdraw cash from a bank machine. The Bank of Estonia has put together instructions on how to prepare, read more: payments and cash.
- The Estonian state has strategic reserves for emergency situations, including stockpiles of foodstuffs, medicines (including veterinary medicines) and liquid fuels. Read more about the stockpiles: stockpiles and resilience.
- In a crisis situation, the residents and companies of Estonia are supplied with motor fuels by emergency gas stations that have autonomous power supply. Altogether, there are 30 emergency gas stations and there is at least one of them in each county, except for Jõgeva County, You can find the locations of the emergency gas stations from the map: emergency gas stations.
Electricity supply
If a deficit occurs in Estonian electricity consumption, a decision needs to be taken on whether and how to restrict electricity supply. Before the electricity supply is restricted, all efforts will be made to include additional capacities.
Should it become necessary, the consumption is restricted based on specific areas and for short periods of time (up to two hours) during peak hours, i.e. in the mornings and in the evenings when the risk of deficits is the highest.
The power companies will notify all affected customers directly of the restrictions on consumptions, just as they do during regular outages.
Keep in mind! On February 8 and 9, consume electricity as you normally do and do not disconnect your devices from the power grid. The power grid is managed based on a prognosis, i.e. the more regular the power consumption of people, the easier it is to manage the grid.
What exactly does the synchronisation with continental Europe mean?
Estonia, along with Latvia and Lithuania, will decouple itself from the Russian energy grid on February 8, 2025. We will join the frequency area of continental Europe on February 9.
Joining the frequency area of continental Europe will make the energy systems of Estonia, Latvia, as well as Lithuania stronger. Estonia has thoroughly prepared for the synchronization and Baltic states have enough controlled capacities and external connections to carry out the synchronization with the frequency area of continental Europe without issues.
If all goes according to plan, the inhabitants of Estonia will not even notice the frequency area changing. The switch-over is safe for the home consumer and it is not necessary to unplug electricity powered consumer electronics and household appliances from the power grid.
It is still worth considering that the power supply is more vulnerable than normal during the switch-over, and technical errors can never be fully ruled out. Russia could also use this period to scare the Estonian people and sow confusion by, for instance, spreading disinformation or damaging our energy infrastructure. For this reason, we are currently also paying more attention to protecting the important facilities of the electricity infrastructure.
Should several widespread and concurrent risks be realised across the Baltic states, be they physical attacks against the infrastructure, adverse weather conditions or technical errors, it cannot be fully ruled out that there will be a power outage.
We recommend that people review their domestic crisis stocks and risk plans, to be prepared for possible power outages.
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Last updated: 03.02.2025
