VILNIUS - The owners of Kaunas Thermal Power Plant (KTE) are going to court over grievances regarding newly imposed price controls imposed by Lithuania's National Control Commission for Prices and Energy.
The Kaunas plant, owned by Russia's gas giant Gazprom, has applied to the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court asking it to overrule the Commission's newly installed regulations.
KTE claims that these new demands run contrary to the original agreement on the purchase and sale of heating energy as concluded by KTE and Kauno Energija (Kaunas Energy), the regional power utility, back in 2003.
That agreement stipulates that the heating price shall remain basically unchanged during the first five years of its term, and shall be recalculated afterwards in accordance with the formula set forth in the agreement.
In June, however, Lithuania's pricing watchdog issued an order requiring KTE to provide the data required for the calculation of the basic heating generation price, according to the methodology used for heating price determination.
"Such demands by the commission mean that it does not essentially recognize the terms of the agreement signed five years ago and now aims to unilaterally set the price of heating sold by KTE. We have addressed the court as we need to clarify the issue," says KTE CEO Antanas Pranculis.
Preliminary KTE estimates put the heating sales price between 12 - 12.5 euro cents per 1 kWh for the second half of this year, almost twice the previous rate of 6.58 cents per 1 kWh.
