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“There are deadlines: up to six months it is possible to evaluate such a methodology. However, knowing that the trade still needs to be regulated in some way and the capacity needs to be identified, it would probably take less than six months. It could be a matter of a week or a few. days. (…) This would be a really urgent issue, “Inga Žilienė told BNS.
Latvia announced last week that it would suspend electricity trade with Belarus if the Astrava power plant went online. In Lithuania, this Riga decision is seen as an example of progress in negotiations and solidarity on energy.
According to I. Žilienė, a joint political declaration is now awaited, and from the transmission system operators (TSOs) a draft methodology to calculate the capacity to trade with third countries. The VERT president did not rule out the possibility that new laws need to be passed in Latvia and Estonia.
“We are awaiting political decisions, because in fact, both in the case of Latvia and Estonia, changes in the law may be necessary: both for the certificate system (electricity – BNS) and for the application of the import tariff to the electricity supplied from third countries, “he said. I. Žilienė.
Lithuania already has the so-called “anti-strava” law and other solutions aimed at blocking the access of electricity from the Astravo nuclear power plant to the country’s market, but Latvia and Estonia do not have such laws.
It is now anticipated that as soon as the Astrava nuclear power plant starts generating electricity, electricity trading on the Lithuanian-Belarusian stretch will be equal to 0 megawatts, and currently the Baltic States trade electricity with third countries only through Lithuania. Depending on the outcome of the tripartite negotiations, the Baltic States may have various solutions to trade electricity with third countries (Russia, Belarus).
“If the political declaration was not signed and until the new methodology was approved, the situation would come into effect in the sense that trade with third countries, except for the Kaliningrad region, would not be possible through the representative sample from Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, “commented I. Žilienė.
According to her, if the three countries did not agree on a common position and the Latvians and Estonians tried to develop a separate bilateral methodology, it would be difficult to challenge it by legal means, as EU law does not regulate the calculation of capacity. in trade with third countries.
“If there really was a situation where the Latvian and Estonian transmission system operators provide a bilateral methodology, I hope that the Lithuanian transmission system operator will object, but the legal means and ways to abolish such a bilateral methodology are very limited, “VERT said. President.
In turn, once a political agreement has been reached at the highest level, this will determine to what extent the electricity trade between Latvia and Russia will take place thereafter and in general.
“However, if the political declaration were signed, then you would already have to look at the provisions. In any case, trade would not be possible on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, but most likely trade will be through the section Latvian-Russian cross-section, but there are already provisions in the political declaration about what would happen there: what capacity, reduced capacity or no capacity ”, says I. Žilienė.
The VERT chief says regulators in the three countries are in favor of both they and the operators cooperating.
“Last week, we discussed with the regulators of Latvia and Estonia the issue of trade from third countries, the position is that the regulators are in any case in favor of coordinating decisions between the three regulators and also encourage the operators of systems of transmission to cooperate and provide tripartite information methodology that would also implement the provisions of the law “anti-fraud”, “said I. Žilienė.
The Latvian government announced in August last year that after Lithuania cut electricity trade with Belarus, Riga would move it to the border between Latvia and Russia. In September 2019, Latvian and Estonian operators AST and Elering announced that they had developed a methodology for trading through the connection between Latvia and Russia as soon as the trade between Lithuania and Belarus turned zero.
Lithuanian Litgrid, in turn, provided Latvian and Estonian operators with a tripartite methodology for electricity trading with third countries, and also consulted the European Commission.
In February this year, after a meeting with the prime ministers of Latvia and Estonia, the Prime Minister of Lithuania, Saulius Skvernelis, announced that the ministers would soon sign a declaration establishing a common position of the Baltic states not to buy electricity from Astrava. . However, the Latvian government did not approve the declaration.
After the last statement last week in Riga, S. Skvernelis said that a political statement was coming up and could be signed in the near future. Energy Minister Žygimantas Vaičiūnas told BNS that it is now planned to finally harmonize the text of the political declaration and at the same time approve the tripartite methodology.
Lithuania and the most active critic of the Astrava nuclear power plant, which is being built a few tens of kilometers from Vilnius, emphasize the need to comply with the safety requirements in the project. For its part, Minsk rejects the criticism.
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