Latvia wants equal benefits from Lithuania-Sweden energy bridge

  • 2008-10-15
  • By TBT Staff
The chief of Latvia's state-owned energy company will support a power link between Sweden and Lithuania under the strict condition that Latvia benefits just as much as the other Baltic states. If the Baltic states set up a joint power operator, Latvia would support the construction of the underwater link, said Karlis Mikelsons, Latvenergo power company head, during an Oct.13 radio interview.

"We believe that if there is a joint operator, then there can be a possibility that the link is built to Lithuania. If Lithuania does not agree to such a solution, then we would like to insist on the link to be built to Latvia," he said. He added that technically it is not important whether the power link is built from Sweden to Lithuania or Latvia, but the question is who will manage the link and dictate regulations and who will benefit from operation of the link.

Mikelsons emphasized that Estonia plans to build a similar energy link with Finland and Lithuania with Poland in the near future, saying that therefore the link between Lithuania and Sweden would only be possible if Lithuania established a joint system operator with Latvia.

The leaders of both countries agreed that the link with Sweden was one of the key projects to ensure energy security and independence of the region after the shutdown of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant.
The initial date for completion of the 350-kilometer cable, 1,000 megawatt cable was 2012. However, due to infighting between Latvia and Lithuania, the project is estimated to be completed in 2015. 
The Swedish ambassador to Lithuania, Malin Karre, agrees that the benefits should serve all three Baltic countries.

"Whatever the decision, it should be made by the Nordic and Baltic countries," Karre said. "Therefore, we want to be certain that irrespective of whether this bridge goes to Lithuania or to Latvia, it is beneficial to the whole Baltics. Both or even all three Baltic countries have to agree among themselves to which country the bridge is to go."

Authorities in Lithuania have recently voiced support of a joint power operator, not least because it is easier for foreign partners to negotiate with one operator than with three.

Earlier this year, Lithuania proposed that Latvia and Estonia join its venture to build a power cable linking the Baltic states and Sweden under the Baltic sea. Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas announced in a radio interview in May that both countries would receive a 25 percent stake in the project.

The Lithuanian energy company Lietuvos Energija signed a deal for a feasibility study with the Swedish transmission grid operator Svenska Krafnart for 1.02 million litas February 2007.

Latvenergo is a state-owned energy company generating power at its two thermal power plants in Riga and three hydropower plants on the River Daugava. Part of the necessary electricity is imported from Estonia, Russia and Lithuania, where the last reactor at Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant will be closed in 2009.
Augstsprieguma Tikls, the operator of the power transmission network, a subsidiary of the state-owned Latvenergo, was established in 2005 and closed 2006 with an 828,000-lat (1.178 million-euro) profit on 46.298 million lats' worth of turnover.