Latvenergo plans to start exports to Poland at the end of this year

RIGA - Joint-stock power supply company Latvenergo plans to expand its export market by starting to export to Poland at the end of this year, Martins cakste, Chairman of the Board of Latvenergo, told LETA in an interview.

He noted that Latvenergo had already tried to enter the Polish market last year, but due to a rather difficult and challenging year, this process was postponed until later.

The company is currently looking at electricity generation projects in Poland, as Latvenergo's plan is to enter the Polish market initially with generation and then with retail.

On the export market, Cakste said that Latvenergo had successfully started exporting gas to Finland, but the BalticConnector gas pipeline was then damaged.

"We had already found good, large customers with whom we will continue our cooperation after the gas pipeline is repaired. So we are trying to expand the exports in all directions, and if it is more with gas in the north, we will try to go with electricity in the south," Cakste said in an interview.

At the same time, Cakste pointed out that so far gas has not been supplied through the Inkoo terminal for commercial reasons, because it is more expensive. However, in the future, assuming that a larger Finnish customer portfolio develops, it is planned to use the Inkoo terminal as well.

"For Latvia's needs, it is more economically viable to buy gas through Klaipeda at the moment," Cakste said.

As reported, Latvenergo posted EUR 2.027 billion in turnover in 2023, a 10 percent increase on 2022, while the energy group's profit grew 90 percent to EUR 350.2 million.

Latvenergo Group is one of the leading energy suppliers in the Baltics operating in electricity and thermal energy generation and trade, natural gas trade and electricity distribution services. Latvenergo is a state-owned company and the shareholder is the Economics Ministry. Latvenergo bonds are traded on the Nasdaq Baltic Bond List.