Baltic, Energy, Energy Market, EU – Baltic States, Lithuania

Lithuania says that the project of synchronization of Baltic power grids with continental Europe is making progress, with an agreement reached with partners about a single LitPol Link line being enough, however, Estonia maintains it would not revise its stance to demand a second interconnection with Poland as the only way of ensuring security, Ave Tampere, media adviser to the Estonian government, confirmed.

"It was concluded that by the end of year the solution for synchronization through Poland would have to be found and declared in memorandum of understanding. From the Estonian perspective, the memorandum can be signed also in June if synchronization with Central Europe with at least two separate lines in different routes is stated as preferred option, as it has been the Baltic states' common main scenario already for years," Tampere told.

In her words, Estonia stated during the meeting of prime ministers in Tallinn on Monday that with a single line with Poland, safe supplies of electricity to the Baltic states would be undermined considerably, and reserve capacities would require about 200 million euros in additional investments, furthermore, around 600 million euros for additional operational costs would have to be covered by Baltic states' consumers to cope with the risk. Also, the functioning of the electricity market would be reduced, as some of the existing interconnection capacity would have to be reserved only for synchronization purposes and thereby be taken out of the market.

Estonia recently proposed synchronizing the grid with Scandinavia by building submarine lines with Finland.

Aurelija Vernickaite, spokeswoman for Lithuania's energy minister, toldthat the number of lines with Poland should be established by experts of the European Network of Transmission System Operators ( ENTSO -E) when they present the technical conditions for synchronization.

"All four countries agree that synchronization via Poland is the best option. And the agreement endorsed during the meeting of the prime ministers in Tallinn is a very important step. Connection to electricity networks of continental Europe is the most optimum option in terms of price and time. The method of technical implementation should be answered by ENTSO-E in the process," Vernickaite told.

Earlier this week, Lithuania's Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis stated that Latvia and Estonia, which used to be against the idea of a single line via Poland, now supported the possibility to synchronize via the single link.

A study by the European Commission's Joint Research Center has found that synchronization via two LitPol Link interconnections would be the optimal option and would cost an estimated 770 mln to 960 mln euros. Synchronization via one interconnection would cost 900 mln euros and synchronization with Scandinavia would cost 1.36 bln to 1.41 bln euros.