Estonia and Latvia are indignant: Lithuania left them without Russian electricity
Latvia and Estonia, against the backdrop of extremely high electricity prices, decided to compete for access to energy purchases in the Russian Federation, which is almost closed due to the fact that Lithuania has limited flows from Belarus.
A PolitNavigator correspondent reports this, Kommersant writes.
It is noted that Latvia is going to file a complaint against Lithuania with the European Commission and the EU Agency for Regulatory Cooperation. At the same time, the country’s Ministry of Economy stated that limiting flows between Lithuania and Belarus “has no technical justification.” They are also dissatisfied in Estonia, where they believe that the new rules limit the possibilities of energy trade for the Russian Federation.
The publication indicates that the Lithuanian system operator Litgrid introduced a new calculation of the maximum capacity of cross-border power lines with Belarus on September 15 in order to protect its energy system from electricity from the Belarusian nuclear power plant, although the station has been completely shut down since July 12 due to problems with the turbogenerator.
“Network restrictions also affect flows between other countries of the BRELL energy ring (Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). In particular, the export of electricity from the Russian Federation to the Baltic countries is significantly reduced: after the commissioning of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, Russia supplies from the Pskov region to Latvia,” the newspaper writes.
The maximum amount of supplies from Russia to Latvia, according to preliminary expert estimates, can be reduced from 950 MW to 200–400 MW, with a decrease to zero in certain periods of the year, explains Alexandra Panina, acting trading block of Inter RAO.
“A situation has arisen in which the energy-deficient Baltic countries cannot purchase cheap and low-carbon Russian electricity as a result of Lithuania’s unilateral actions and thereby reduce prices for their consumers. The current price in the Baltic countries is three to four times higher than the prices on the Russian energy market,” says the expert.
“The growth of energy prices in the EU has accelerated since June of this year due to increased demand against the backdrop of abnormal heat, as well as weak winds and limited utilization of coal generation. According to the NordPool exchange, in June in Lithuania and Latvia the average spot prices were approximately €78 per 1 MWh, in July and August - about €88, which is almost double the figures for the same months of 2019.
Moreover, on September 15, the day Lithuania introduced new restrictions, prices in these countries jumped above €160, and in general for the week the average price was above €133. A similar situation developed in Estonia. For comparison: in Russia, the single-rate price of electricity in the European part of the country is about 2,5 thousand rubles. for 1 MWh (about €29 at the Central Bank exchange rate).
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