VERT President: Consumers have already paid for the electricity produced by Astrave

I. Žilienė says that after Lithuania stopped trading Belarusian electricity, some of the electricity produced by Astrave in Lithuania had already been converted into money, but it is not clear exactly how much.

“To this day, since there is no certificate system where it is possible to determine what electricity is, it is real, yes; to this day, consumers have paid for electricity produced in Belarus to some extent”, I. Žilienė told BNS on Friday.

According to her, the electricity produced in Belarus, which physically flows to Lithuania due to the market deficit, is in fact listed on the Latvian stock exchange.

“All electricity flows through the Belarus-Lithuania connection and it is received that the electricity physically comes from Belarus, not Russia, and that the physical flow of electricity is traded in Latvia. The electricity that comes from Belarus is converted into real money, paid by Lithuanian consumers, ”explained the president of VERT.

According to her, the factual data shows that Latvia and Estonia exported part of the imported electricity from Russia to Russia after the commissioning of the Astrava nuclear power plant, because they do not need it.

Therefore, according to the president of VERT, the transmission capacity from Russia to Latvia and Estonia, where most of the electricity demand is provided by local production, should be emitted only to the extent that it is to be consumed by Latvia and Estonia. The same principle is now marketed between Lithuania and the Königsberg region.

“If the physical flow passes through the connections of Latvia, Estonia, Russia to Latvia and Estonia, then such physical flow requires the issuance of commercial permits. Just as electricity flows from Russia to Latvia and Estonia”, emphasized I. Žilienė.

According to her, although regulators in Latvia and Estonia have already approved the new methodology for trade with third countries and consider it valid, VERT does not currently see the possibility of approving this methodology.

“We do not see any possibility of approving it, because none of the conditions have been fulfilled, neither to reduce the capacity, nor to eliminate the Lithuanian infrastructure, calculate the capacity for trade with Russia, nor to create a system of certificates,” he said I. Žilienė.