Baltic States – CIS, Belarus, Energy, Energy Market, Latvia, Nuclear power plant

On August 25, the government in the closed part of the meeting heard the Economics Ministry's informative report on power trade with Belarus.

The government protocol shows that ministers made a decision that if the Astravyets nuclear power plant launches operations, Latvia stops power trade with Belarus, considering development of events in Belarus and risks to international nuclear safety.

According to Irklis, the main principle of the methodology provides that Russia that has an interlink with Belarus, will have to provide a proof that the power supplied to Latvia has not been produced in Belarus. Irklis reported that this methodology has been approved by Latvia and Estonia and it still has to be coordinated with Lithuania.

As reported, Lithuania's power transmission system operator Litgrid said on Monday it had been informed by Belarusian operator Belenergo that power production at the Astravyets nuclear power plant would be launched on November 1-10.

The Lithuanian company said it would set zero capacity for power imports from Belarus to implement the so-called "anti-Astrayets" law once the power plant launches power production.

Litgrid notified market participants about the received information via the Nord Pool power exchange. The Lithuanian operator earlier informed the market that power imports from Belarus would be suspended under the aforementioned circumstances.

The Lithuanian government says the facility has been built in violation of safety and environmental requirements, an allegation that Minsk denies.