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Lithuania's Epso-G sees power grid synchronization and single gas market as key challenges

BC, Vilnius, 07.03.2017.Print version
Lithuania's electricity and natural gas transmission group Epso-G says that the key challenges in the coming years will be to disconnect the Baltic power grids from the BRELL ring, which also includes Russia and Belarus, and to facilitate gas trade among Lithuanian, Latvia and Estonian market players, writes LETA/BNS.

In its first strategy for the period until 2022, the company identifies preparation for synchronizing the Baltic electricity grids with the Western European system and creation of a single gas market as its key objectives.


Epso-G CEO Rolandas Zukas says that special focus will be placed on the grid synchronization with the Continental European network.


"The reason we are doing this is that Europe is predictable and has clear regulations. Things seem to be alright in the East now, but we have no information as to how they will be," he said.

The European Commission's Joint Research Center is currently conducting a study on the planned grid synchronization. Preliminary findings suggest that the best option would be to synchronize the Baltic grids with the continental European network via Poland. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia aim to synchronize their grids by 2025.


The Baltic countries have agreed to create a single gas market by 2020. This will involve scrapping entry-exit points at the borders to have the same gas prices in all three countries.

According to Zukas, the single gas market will remain a key objective for the company.

"Creating a single gas market in the Baltics with a single entry-exit point is rather challenging. That requires cooperation among the operators. Our aim is to have a Baltic market operational by 2020," he said.


In the CEO's words, the creation of a singe market would help reduce gas infrastructure maintenance costs.


Epso-G is also planning to expand the biofuel exchange Baltpool and the natural gas exchange Get Baltic. These plans are not new, but Zukas said on Tuesday that they expected Baltpool to receive a part of its revenue from Latvia as early as this year.


Baltpool should derive at least 10% of its revenue from operations outside Lithuania's markets within three years. It is also planned that the creation of a single Baltic gas market will help Get Baltic to expand its operations.






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