VILNIUS - Electricity production has stopped at Lithuania's Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant as it shut down for a scheduled two-month maintenance period on Aug. 2. Lithuania has been forced to find the bulk of electricity to fill the void from foreign sources.
The power transmission system operator Lietuvos Energija (Lithuanian Energy) said that Lietuvos Elektrine (Lithuanian Power Plant) and other local plants will supply around 43 percent of the country's electricity needs, with the remaining 57 percent to be imported from Russia, Estonia and Scandinavia.
There was some excitement when on July 28, with the first of the plant's two turbines already shut down for scheduled work, the second turbine unexpectedly shut down, causing a sudden drop in the energy supply.
The second turbine was turned off due to human error during the shutdown of the first turbine. Plant administrators said that background radiation levels remained normal.
The sudden switch-off forced Lithuania to tap into emergency reserves in the neighboring countries and managed to keep the supply of electricity to domestic consumers flowing.
Ignalina is set for permanent closure at the end of next year, and regional governments are pressed to plan for and secure alternate sources of energy.
The Latvian government is moving forward on its own energy security issues, in its own way. A July 29 vote approved an Economics Ministry proposal to begin a search for consultants to prepare a tender on the introduction of new power capacity in Latvia, says the ministry.
The construction of new base-level power capacities in Latvia is needed as soon as possible.
Public procurement procedures are set by the Public Procurement Law. However, in analyzing the situation, the ministry has come to the conclusion that the procedure will take too long if the law is followed. The ministry says that it is possible not to announce tenders in exceptional cases, if that is what is required for the protection of significant State interests, and as long as the Cabinet of Ministers has agreed.
Exceptional cases are covered by amendments to Latvia's Energy Law, which came into force on May 15 and which calls for the start of work on the introduction of new power capacity.
According to these amendments, the government can announce a tender for introduction of new production capacities or reconstruction of existing equipment if the energy transmission operator reports that security of state energy supplies is threatened by insufficient capacities.
The Economics Ministry believes that attracting consultants would be in the interests of the State and an exception should be made in this case.
Latvia already has two power generation projects in the pipeline, as the government on March 11 endorsed in principle the construction of both gas-fired and coal-fired electric power plants.
Lithuania's national investor company Leo LT, set to solve its looming energy gap, has now voted to establish a subsidiary, Visagino Atomine Elektrine (Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant), to manage the design and preparation to build a new nuclear power plant to replace Ignalina.
Interest in joining the project comes from Poland's Polska Grupa Energetyczna, Latvia's Latvenergo and Estonia's Eesti Energia who have each agreed to share in the proposed ownership structure of the new subsidiary.
The Ignalina plant is to re-start operations and reach its full capacity on Oct. 5, once the two-month maintenance period is complete.
