Energy, Good for Business, Lithuania

This is the first 330 kV power transmission line to be built in Lithuania since the restoration of independence. The new overhead line will ensure that electricity from Northern Europe can reach all of Lithuania when the NordBalt power bridge begins to function next year.

"The new 330 kV Klaipeda-Telsiai transmission line fundamentally improves the reliability of power supply to both the city and district of Klaipeda. Until now, only cross-border links functioned in the western part of Lithuania, and electricity had to be transmitted between eastern and western Lithuania through the territory of neighbouring countries," said Daivis Virbickas, chairman of the Board and CEO of Litgrid. "The Klaipeda-Telsiai power line is also necessary to take full advantage of the NordBalt power link, launch of which is planned in December 2015," he said.

Costs of preparatory and construction works for the new power line totalled LTL 68 million (EUR 19.7 million), with 40 percent of the project financed by the European Regional Development Fund. Owners of the roughly 600 plots of land crossed by the Klaipeda-Telsiai power line received a compensation of approximately LTL 5 million (EUR 1.5 million) for granting an easement to their property. .

With the new line, Lithuania now has 1,760 kilometres of 330 kV power lines. Litgrid controls nearly 6,800 power cables and overhead power lines used to transmit electricity throughout Lithuania and to the neighbouring power systems of Latvia, Belarus and Kaliningrad.