Construction of the power plant was initiated by Volta company and it was decided by the Tallinn City Council in 1912 after the work of special committee established in 1909.

[1][4][5][6] It was the first power plant in the world to employ oil shale as its primary fuel.

[10] In 1978, the power plant area was used for the Andrei Tarkovsky's film Stalker as the threshold to the Zone.

[citation needed] Since 1984, the former power plant boiler house is used as an energy museum.

Since 2011, the power plant complex is used for hosting the Tallinn Creative Hub (Kultuurikatel).