Latvian companies look north for electricity

  • 2009-09-03
  • From wire reports
RIGA - The prices at which Eesti Energia sells electricity in Latvia are cheaper than those offered by Latvia's own electric company Latvenergo, but most companies still prefer buying from their Latvian service provider, reports news agency LETA. Entrepreneurs explain this by saying that many people simply do not know about the option to buy their electricity from another, less expensive, source.
Eesti Energia started selling electricity to Latvian companies a couple of years ago, under European Union rules which require countries have to open up their energy markets.

Already, Eesti Energia's Latvian subsidiary Enefit has signed up approximately 120 corporate customers in Latvia, including chocolate-maker Laima, all the major breweries and also TMB elements, a subsidiary of a Tartu-based concrete producer. Chief of the concrete company Jaan Luts says that their subsidiary is buying Estonian electricity in Latvia because it is cheaper than Latvian electricity. "The difference is approximately 10 percent, according to our estimates," he said.

Despite lower prices, Eesti Energia currently has only 6 percent of the Latvian electricity market. Latvenergo is preferred, for example, by Estonian construction companies Merko and Nordecon, and also by BLRT Group, which consumes 25 million KW of electricity per year in Latvia.