RIGA - Karlis Mikelsons, chairman of Latvian power utility Latvenergo has floated the idea of establishing a pan-Baltic electricity system operator. It is the latest in a series of moves that could lead to the Baltics becoming a single electricity market.
Writing in the company's newsletter, Energoforums, Mikelsons said: "One operator in the Baltics is better than three separate operators. The development, system, balancing, reservation and other services can be planned more easily. A joint system would have a different scale and balance.
"I believe that a joint operator in the Baltics would be the best variant."
Mikelsons' words come shortly after Latvian economics minister Kaspars Gerhards revealed in a radio interview that Latvia is in favor of a joint electricity system in principle and will be calling on Estonia and Lithuania to join in.
The Latvian position reflects the increasing urgency of a solution to future Baltic power needs, which finally seem to be gathering pace.Estonia's Ministry of Economics and Communication has confirmed that it is drawing up a pheasability study on the possible privatization of various state assets, including power utility Eesti Energia.
And on July 25th, energy companies from the three Baltic states and Poland agreed at a meeting in Copenhagen to set up a joint venture to develop a nuclear power plant in Lithuania, according to a report in the UK's Guardian newspaper."The partners have agreed to Lithuania's proposal to establish a joint project development company, in which LEO LT would hold a 51 percent stake," Lithuania's LEO LT said in a statement after a meeting.
Poland's Polska Grupa Energetyczna is joining Latvenergo, Eesti Energia and LEO LT in construction of a replacement for the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania, which is scheduled to close at the end of 2009.
Estonia has built Estlink, an energy link to Finland and Lithuania has plans to build connections with Poland and possibly Sweden, but the Baltics remain largely an 'energy island' using a transmission system that is incompatible with the systems used in other parts of Europe. Teaming up to create a three-state, one market solution would probably offer significant cost and efficiency savings.
If a pan-Baltic ownership structure can be agreed for the Ignalina project, why not for the whole energy sector?
