Scheduled annual maintenance on the NordBalt electricity cable between Lithuania and Sweden has been put off for more than two months due to the difficult situation in the electricity market.
The Lithuanian Energy Ministry said that Litgrid, the country’s power transmission system operator, had made the decision on the ministry’s instructions.
According to the Energy Minister Dainius Kreivys, the NordBalt cable is currently crucial for importing Scandinavian electricity from Sweden, so temporarily disconnecting it would reduce import volumes and have a negative impact on already high market prices.
“Given the situation on the Nord Pool exchange and the high electricity prices, we need to maintain maximum market integration and the possibility to import electricity from Scandinavia,” he said in a press release.
Litgrid CEO Rokas Masiulis says that the condition of the link allows carrying out the planned NordBalt maintenance work in late autumn.
The Lithuanian transmission system operator informed the Nord Pool Spot power exchange on August 18 that the maintenance shutdown, originally scheduled for August 29 – September 4, had been postponed to November 7-13.
The ministry said Litgrid had urgently coordinated the new date with Sweden’s TSO Svenska Kraftnat.
Normally, NordBalt maintenance is carried out in Sweden and Lithuania at the same time each year according to a pre-arranged plan. The interconnector usually goes offline for several days at the start of the work.
Lithuania imported 2.87 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity from Sweden via the link from January to July this year, accounting for 42% of its total power imports. NordBalt’s overall availability stood at 97.3% last year. (LRT/Business World Magazine)
