RIGA - The appearance of nine prime ministers in the Latvian capital last week thoroughly muddied the picture of the Baltics' energy future, with conflicting reports surfacing about high-profile plans to build an underwater cable that would connect either Lithuania or Latvia to Sweden.
Lithuania's head of government, Gediminas Kirkilas, sparked the confusion on June 5 when he said in an interview that he had convinced Latvia to go along with a cable connecting Lithuania and Sweden in lieu of an alternative project that would link Latvia and Sweden's grids.
"It seems that we succeeded in persuading [the Latvians]. The Latvian prime minister said that they would participate in Lithuania's project," Kirkilas told Lithuanian radio.
"I think that yesterday [June 4] we took a step forward and that the Lithuanian-Swedish energy bridge, which both Latvians and Estonians should join in a form similar to our participation in the Estlink project, should now get underway," Kirkilas said.
In his words, "They [the Latvians] believe that the Lithuanian project is more advanced. We have studies in place and have virtually secured financing from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development."
The news came as a broadside to Latvian officials, who reacted by suggesting nothing similar took place at the Baltic Sea States summit in Riga.
Edgars Vaikulis, a spokesman for Latvian Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis, said Latvia has not agreed that a second Baltic-Scandinavian energy link (the first is Estlink) should be built between Sweden and Lithuania. He said this was an issue that all three countries would continue to discuss and solve in both bilateral and tripartite talks.
Vaikulis cited Godmanis as saying that there were several arguments in favor of a link between Sweden and Latvia, while a Swedish-Lithuanian connection would have its distinct advantages.
News of the contradictory statements was not surprising given Kirkilas' renowned proclivity to promise and speak about results long before they've materialized 's a trait that became legendary throughout the long, grueling negotiations on a new nuclear power plant.
Be that as it may, the so-called Swedlink is a priority project for the Baltics, who face an energy deficit once the Ignalina nuclear power plant shuts down in 2009. The Baltic states, particularly Latvia and Lithuania, fear a dependence on Russian kilowatts since their electricity grids are not hooked up to Europe's.
Lithuania will soon start building a grid link with Poland and would like another with Sweden. Latvia, for its part, would also like a direct link to Swedish kilowatts.
Andris Laucins, head of the foreign investors' council in Latvia, told a parliamentary committee that Latvia should develop a plan to build a cable to Sweden's network and that the government should be more active in pursuing this project.
Vents Armands Krauklis, chairman of the energy subcommittee, said that an energy link with Sweden is strategically important and that he is unsure that Latvia and Lithuania would manage to work out a common position on the issue. Commenting Kirkilas' statement, Krauklis said it was made in a pre-election atmosphere. "Nothing has been decided yet," he said.
In the past there has been talk of building two links, but it has become clear that Sweden will not have enough excess capacity to export to both Lithuania and Latvia. Indeed, one of the main motivations behind Swedlink would be the capability to export electricity to Sweden once Lithuania's new reactors come online 's which is unlikely to happen before 2020.
Latvia's daily Diena, meanwhile, reported on June 5 that Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said that the Scandinavian country would soon have a huge electricity surplus and would export this capacity.
The report was an eye-opener in Latvia, where officials have stated the opposite: that Sweden will soon be faced with an energy deficit.
Latvian Economy Minister Kaspars Gerhards was quoted by Diena as saying that the report of Sweden's export ambitions was "something new." He said that this issue was not discussed at either the business forum or talks between Gerhards and Godmanis during their recent visit to Sweden.
Energy expert Juris Ozolins said that due to the excessive water in Sweden's rivers as of late there has been an electricity surplus in recent years. Energy economy measures have also helped create a surplus.
Energy imports from Sweden might also mean that Latvia would not need to build two new power plants, especially a coal-fired unit in Kurzeme, western Latvia, since that region would benefit most from an undersea electricity cable. The nationalist For Fatherland and Freedom party, which Gerhards belongs to, is advocating the Kurzeme plant.
According to Diena, the Latvian-Swedish link was excluded from the government decision on the promotion of the gas and solid fuel power stations projects since, as the ruling People's Party argued, Lithuania is already working on the link project and for Latvia it would be "barging into a closed room."
