Energy, EU – Baltic States, Lithuania

Before Lithuania joined the Nord Pool Spot trade zone, whole-sale price for electricity was around LTL 0.15 (EUR 0.04)/kilowatt hour (kWh). But on the first trade day Lithuania bought electricity for LTL 0.241 (EUR 0.07)/kWh even though Estonia on the same day paid only LTL 0.102 (EUR 0.03)/kWh. Prices in Sweden and Norway dropped to LTL 0.02 (EUR 0.01) that day, reports LETA/ELTA, referring to Respublika.  

During the first month, electricity for Estonia was by around 40% cheaper than in Lithuania. The daily Respublika asked Liutauras Liutkevicius, head of the company Enefit which sells Estonian energy in Lithuania why electricity in Lithuania was much more expensive.

"Although we were admitted to the Nord Pool Spot trade zone and applied the same trading principles, that has not changed the fact that Lithuania is an energy island. We do not have a direct link with the Nordic countries, while energy link between Estonia and Latvia is too weak to transmit all the desired electricity. When cheaper electricity cannot reach Lithuania, any other energy supplier submits tenders," he said. These other supplies are Lithuanian electricity energy producers or importers of Russian electricity whose prices are by several times higher than in Scandinavia. In the first 6 months of this year, electricity imported accounted for 68%, the majority of which came from Russia. Lithuania can expect similar electricity prices as in other Baltic States only in late 2015 if the NordBalt project is successful and a cable to Sweden is built.