VILNIUS - The controversial decision over where to build the eastern connection point of the proposed Swedlink electric cable between the Baltic States and Sweden will largely be decided by the Scandinavian transmission operator Nordel, says Latvia's Latvenergo power utility subsidiary Augstsprieguma Tikls in company newsletter Energoforums.
"Construction of the power link will not be decided just by Sweden's agreement with Latvia or Lithuania… The benefits of the link are to be carefully assessed by Nordel's members 's Norway, Denmark, Finland 's who will make a joint decision on the issue," said Augstsprieguma Tikls chairman Imants Zviedris.
Energoforums noted that the power link with Sweden is significant for the Baltic states in promoting development of the electricity market and ensuring the region has sufficient capacity, considering that the Ignalina nuclear plant is scheduled to close next year.
The Baltics already get electricity from Scandinavia's energy bourse Nordpool Spot, through Estlink, Estonia's 350 MW underwater cable connection to Finland.
Latvian and Lithuanian officials have been squabbling for weeks on which country should benefit by hosting the new connection point.
The laying of an underwater electric cable from the Gulf of Riga would provide a much simpler solution, said Latvian Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis on the Lithuanian public radio station Lietuvos Radijas. He estimates the cost savings from this route to be 100 million euros over the Lithuanian proposal.
Latvia however "has not yet revealed its official position on the site of the power bridge, and that in principle impedes the project as a whole" retorts Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas in an interview on news radio station Ziniu Radijas. "I know that Latvia has other proposals as well. One of them is to interconnect the Baltic electricity grids into a single network and this proposal could be discussed," he says.
Lithuania intends to hold its position, claiming that Latvia's solution is unacceptable, says Rymantas Juozaitis, CEO and chairman of Lithuania's national investor company Leo LT. "We have conducted the feasibility study, we have identified the sites and the funding amounts have been determined. Our high-voltage electricity transmission network is stronger, it will need only a minor upgrade to have electricity flowing in both directions. Thus our position is that the Lithuanian cable is better," Juozaitis said.
He adds that Lithuania could lay the cable faster and more effectively, and perhaps even at lower cost. If the Baltic countries were to pursue plans to establish a common market with a common electricity grid, the site of a power bridge to Sweden would be purely technical, Kirkilas noted, and Lithuania's advantage was the country's actual readiness to start.
Lithuania wants to implement the Swedlink project in line with the model used for the Estlink project, that is, for Lithuania to own 50 percent in the company with Latvia and Estonia taking 25 percent each.
Latvia's Economy Minister Kaspars Gerhards said that Latvia intended to propose to Lithuania and Estonia to first establish a joint electricity transmission line operator and later decide on which Baltic country should host the connection site.
Lithuania has proposed to connect at a point close to the crude oil terminal Butinge, says Kirkilas, and that "the grids close to the sea are better on our territory, the connection could be established faster."
Lithuanian officials had originally intended the project to be operational by 2012, but now analysts expect that the link will be completed only by 2016.
The Lithuanians would like to see Leo LT, the company set up to organize the project to replace Ignalina, take the lead management role, together with Sweden's Svenska Kraftnat.
The project is valued at 480 million euros with expected capacity of 700 - 1,000 MW.
