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“In 2020, when the Belarusian nuclear power plant was not in operation, the average hourly import volume from mainland Russia was about 180 MW per hour. With the start of operations at the Belarusian nuclear power plant and the start of generation of electricity, this amount has doubled and exports from mainland Russia have practically doubled, ”said Giedrius Radvila, Head of Litgrid’s Systems Management Department, at a press conference on Wednesday.
“Since January, we have seen Belarus launch a pilot commercial operation and export electricity, which means that trade with mainland Russia has increased 3.5 times as the system has turned into surplus,” he added.
According to G. Radvila, depending on the capacity of the Russia-Latvia section, in 2021 imports from mainland Russia – and at the same time from Belarus – may increase to 7.1 terawatt hours (TWh), compared to 1.3 TWh on last year.
Renatas Pocius, president of the State Energy Regulatory Authority (VERT), emphasized that the methodology for trade with third countries approved unilaterally by Latvia and Estonia does not guarantee that electricity produced in Belarus does not reach the Baltic States.
“The methodology used with third countries is not effective. Electricity produced in Belarus enters the Baltic countries: the goal of a political agreement has not been achieved, “R. Pocius said at the press conference.
He stressed that Belarus has a surplus of electricity generation after the start of commercial activities at the Astrava nuclear power plant.
“This has led to an increase in physical flows on the Belarus-Lithuania connection, which also presupposes an increase in trade flows with third countries,” said the president of VERT.
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