Tallinna Vesi

About the Utility

AS Tallinna Vesi provides water supply and wastewater services in Tallinn and Saue and supplies water companies in surrounding municipalities, with Maardu priced under its own tariff. It is a listed company, and its third-quarter 2026 interim report names the City of Tallinn as its majority shareholder. Prices are set through the Competition Authority, to which the company applies for changes. That regime was settled only after a long dispute: a Supreme Court judgment that took effect in December 2017 ended the tariff conflict, and regulator-approved prices introduced in December 2019 cut charges in the main service area by an average of 27% for private and 15% for business customers.

Water System

Supply rests overwhelmingly on surface water, with a much smaller groundwater component in the most recent reported split; surface abstraction was 25.93 million m³ in 2025, and the company supplied 27.73 million m³ of drinking water to consumers through a network of 1,224 km of water pipes and 22 water pumping stations. Tap-water quality remains high, with 99.5% of samples meeting all drinking-water standards. Water loss is the main efficiency measure: the rate has stayed inside the company’s target of below 14% in each of the last two years and well within the regulatory limit, helped by continuing pipe renewal.

Wastewater System

The company also collects and treats wastewater and manages stormwater. The sewerage system comprises 1,200 km of wastewater pipes and a separate 520 km stormwater network, and the Paljassaare Wastewater Treatment Plant treated 52.1 million m³ in 2025. Effluent leaving the plant was fully compliant in every year the annual reports tabulated, and the company’s third-quarter 2026 interim report says treated effluent still outperforms the standards. Stormwater is becoming a climate-adaptation priority: the same report records the opening of the capital’s first coastal stormwater sedimentation pond, in the Lahepea Street area of North Tallinn.

Investment & Priorities

Capital spending has risen in every year since 2021, reaching €55.74 million of investment in fixed assets in 2025, and the company’s third-quarter interim report sets a plan of €60 million for 2026. Borrowing has grown with it, to €160 million of loans at the end of 2025, backed by an enlarged syndicated bank facility and further Nordic Investment Bank funding. Work continues on Paljassaare’s secondary clarifiers, and the investment focus is now shifting to rebuilding ozonation and microfiltration in water treatment. Legacy tariff claims are being settled out of court.

Sustainability & Resilience

Tallinna Vesi’s climate plan sets targets to cut direct and purchased-energy emissions by at least half from their 2020 level by 2030, to generate at least half of the electricity and heat it needs in-house, and to reduce energy consumption by at least a tenth. Purchased-energy emissions have fallen steeply from the base year, and renewable sources supplied 89% of energy consumption in 2024. Direct emissions, however, have barely moved. A combined heat and power plant and biogas boiler houses supply part of its own energy.

Key Challenges

1. Financing a growing investment programme as borrowing rises.
2. Closing out the historical tariff claims.
3. Maintaining water loss below target through pipe renewal.
4. Modernising water treatment after a wastewater-focused investment cycle.
5. Cutting direct emissions and raising in-house energy production by 2030.