Baltic States – CIS, Belarus, Energy, EU – Baltic States, Lithuania

Lithuania's ministries for foreign affairs and energy have recently received a letter from the Belarusian Energy Ministry, asking to provide the neighboring country with access to the pumped-storage hydropower plant in the future, a spokesman for the Lithuanian Energy Ministry told BNS.

According to Mantas Dubauskas, Lithuania replied this week that there was no such possibility.

"We have informed the Belarusian ministry that the Lithuanian market is fully liberalized and functions in accordance with the requirements of the EU Third Energy Package and that electricity is traded based on free market principles and in accordance with EU regulation," the spokesman said.

"Based on that (regulation), all electricity must be traded on the exchange and there are no possibilities for reserving capacity for electricity transmission via power interconnections with third countries," he said.

The head of the owner of Kruonis PSP – the company Lietuvos energija – Dalius Misyunas said that Belarus has not explained why it needs the service of Kruonis PSP, but it is likely that it needed a reserve for the future nuclear power plants. There is no power, similar to Kruonis, so Belarus has to ask the neighboring countries for these services.

According to him, Belarus is involved in the energy BRELL ring, so it signed interconnection agreements with the operators of transmission systems of neighboring countries, including Litgrid, through which it can sell electricity and thus indirectly to reserve electricity in Kruonis PSP.

"There is no such deal as a direct agreement between the owner of a hardware or a potential customer," – said BNS D. Misyunas.

According to the Lietuvos energija, Kruonis Pumped Storage Plant was built for the Ignalina nuclear power plant, and its original purpose was the so-called secondary reserve for nuclear reactors.