Public electricity price in Lithuania to drop to 28 euro cents from March – watchdog

VILNIUS - The public electricity price in Lithuania should go down from 56.5 to 28 euros cents from March, Renatas Pocius, chairman of the country's National Energy Regulatory Council (VERT) said on Tuesday.

The gas price for households, however, will remain unchanged from March, he confirmed to BNS.

If VERT agrees on Wednesday, the standard one time zone tariff would stand at 28 cents per kWh from March 1, and the two time zone's daily tariff would be 32 cents and the nighttime tariff would be 19 cents. 

"VERT plans to make a decision tomorrow (Wednesday - BNS) on the recalculation of the public electricity price and this price will be practically half of the current price - 56.5 cents - and we plan to have it at 28 cents," Pocius told members of the Labor Party political group in the Seimas on Tuesday. 

VERT also expects the electricity price in the Nord Pool exchange's Lithuanian bidding area to reach around 142 euros per MWh by the end of this year.

The public electricity price paid by only a part of consumers has almost doubled since January to 56.5 cents. However, once the 28.5 cent state compensation is included, it has increased by 17 percent to 28 cents, including VAT. The compensation is also paid to consumers who have chosen an independent supplier.

In Lithuania, the public electricity price and gas tariffs for households are usually set twice a year from January and July.