Construction, Energy, EU – Baltic States, Good for Business, Lithuania

The work will involve finding the optimum routes for the installation of new 330 kV power transmission lines from Kruonis Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Plant (the KPSHP) to Bitenai, from Darbenai to Bitenai, and also for the construction of distribution stations Musa and Darbenai, the company said.

"We will be holding meetings with the local communities. We want to introduce people to the planned works before they start, and also hear what is important for them and respond accordingly," Daivis Virbickas, CEO at Litgrid, said in a statement.

Litgrid plans to call territorial planning tenders shortly.

On Aug 7, the Lithuanian government endorsed a list of projects that are necessary for synchronizing the country's power grid with that of continental Europe, with planning procedures veing initiated for four of them.

The list, worked out by the Energy Ministry, consists of 14 projects, including the construction of a new submarine cable between Lithuania and Poland, named Harmony Link, and synchronous compensators. The energy minister says these projects are the whole synchronization "alpha and omega".

Litgrid said earlier Lithuania would make the largest contribution to the synchronization projects, worth around 1.5 billion euros, as it would need to invest around 650 mln euros, including EU support.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia plan to synchronize their grids with continental Europe and desynchronize from the post-Soviet IPS/UPS system, known as the BRELL ring, by 2025.