Ecology, Energy, Legislation, Lithuania

The latter sells the heat for Kaunas City Municipality for LTL 0.19 (EUR 0.05) per kilowatt-hour without VAT. When this year the first private biofuel plant was opened in Kaunas the city government welcomed it pompously. However, there is not much to be happy about because the heat price was not cut. Later this spring Lithuanian Energy Consultants Association (LECA) warned that Kaunas will not manage to reduce heat prices without major players, writes LETA/ELTA, referring to Kauno diena.

Renowned energy expert, scientist and academic at Lithuanian Energy Institute Jurgis Vilemas also believes that small plants are not the solution for the consumers. Vilemas thinks that the small plants should be afraid of the change in the KTE. "If this plant begins to use biofuels it will have technological capacity to produce much cheaper heat," says the scientist. Vilemas thinks that the major cities should have the possibility to get energy from the gas. "It is in particular important if we do not build nuclear power plant," says the energy academic. According to experts, small plants will never compete against each other because Kaunas heat demand exceeds their capacity. Kaunas government only interfered with the real competition. It has long obstructed Gazprom plans to sell its shares to small KTE shareholder Clement Power Venture. This company intends to produce a part of the heat out of biofuel and in this way to create certain competition among small plants.