Analytics, Energy, Energy Market, Lithuania

"As far as I understand, the aim is to do all this before the elections so that an effect is felt. There are several fast ways of bringing down energy prices for consumers and all of them are bad," the public broadcaster quoted Martynas Nagevicius, president of the Lithuanian Confederation of Renewable Resources, as saying. 

"People just need to be told that energy prices are on a long-term upward trend to make it easier for them to make decisions on renovation and invest in a more efficient use of energy," he added. 

Lithuania will elect municipal councils in March and its next president and members of the European Parliament in May.

Rytas Staselis, an expert with the Lithuanian Electricity Association, says the government would probably be able to somewhat reduce prices for households, but that would not cut their energy bills significantly. 

"If the government sets itself the goal (of bringing down prices), it could possibly do so. But the question remains: at whose expense? It would be possible to achieve a cut by percentage points by pressing energy companies really hard and to announce that some (price) is rising by 24.9% instead of 25% next year," he said. 

With the energy market regulator expected to set final electricity and natural gas prices for 2019 next week, the government plans to discuss on Wednesday measures to stem the price hikes, but no concrete steps have been announced yet. 

Some market participants told earlier this month that electricity and natural gas prices for households might grow by around 15-20% next January and that business consumers could see their power bills rise by as much as 30-60%.