Lithuania-Sweden power link repairs to take another week or so – minister

VILNIUS – The repairs of the Lithuania-Sweden NordBalt power interconnection, which has been out of service for the third week, will likely continue for another week or so, Energy Minister Dainius Kreivys said on Tuesday. 

"At the moment, there is a cable fault on the Swedish side. The location of the fault has been identified. The joint that needs to be replaced has been found, and it will be replaced within a week or slightly more," Kreivys told reporters.

"The cable will then resume its operation," he added. 

The Nord Pool electricity exchange says that the repair of the cable is scheduled to be completed by 11:59 p.m. on September 22.

NordBalt was shut down for repairs on September 2 after a failure. Initially, the work was planned to be completed within a day, but the deadline was later extended to September 14h.

With NordBalt out of service, Lithuania's average wholesale electricity price jumped by 12 percent to 142.44 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh) last week.