VILNIUS - A grid link between Lithuania and Poland that would connect the Baltic state with the rest of the EU could become operational in 2013, officials responsible for the project announced June 25.
Yet executives at LitPol Link, a Lithuanian-Polish joint venture, added in the next breath that the date was tentative and it still wasn't entirely clear when the 237 million euro grid project would be ready to carry kilowatts between the two countries.
A feasibility study, which is expected to be ready by next spring, should answer the questions of when the so-called "energy bridge," would be ready," executives said.
Wladyslaw Mielczarski, the chairman of LitPol Link's supervisory board, told a news conference that construction work would take three years once all the permits were in hand. He said the preparatory work should be completed by 2010.
"A major part of the work is to enhance the networks both in Poland and Lithuania. Lithuania will need 90 to 100 million euros for this purpose, and it is luckier in that it can use money from the Ignalina [Nuclear Power Plant] decommissioning fund," Mielczarski said.
Indeed, the project will require the expansion of existing electricity networks in Lithuania and Poland, which will cost another 700 million euros, including 600 million for Poland.
"Poland will need around 600 million euros, of which the Polish government has pledged to provide only 200 million euros. My goal as project coordinator will be to seek that the European Commission should allocate this money to Poland," he said.
Mielczarski said he hoped that the 600 million euros would not be used to build gas pipelines or gas stations.
"I think that the Polish government realizes that this is a project of political importance too, and that it can produce political dividends," he said.
For Lithuania, the Polish grid link is extraordinarily crucial since it will give the Baltic state a direct link to the EU electricity market, something it currently lacks. Though Lithuania is now self-sufficient in energy thanks to the nuclear reactor in Ignalina, once the plant is shut down at the end of 2009 Lithuania will likely to be forced to import electricity from Russia.
Mielczarski stressed that the total value of the project was estimated at nearly 1 billion euros. The electricity line will have a capacity of 1,000 megawatts.
Transmission system operators Lietuvos Energija (Lithuanian Energy) and Poland's PSE Operator established LitPol Link in May.
LitPol Link has received approval from the Polish competition authority but still needs to obtain several documents, Vidmantas Jankauskas, chairman of the company's management board, said.
The supervisory board asked the management board to appoint individuals to be in charge of coordinating the expansion of networks in both countries.
