Amid worries that Europe may face serious energy shortages, the CEO of Lithuania’s electricity grid operator says there will be no power cuts in the country and energy rationing is not in the works.
“Last year, especially at the end of the summer when electricity prices spiked, there was a much more serious emphasis on potential power cuts, and even at the beginning of the winter the tension was a bit higher. Now this tension is easing,” Rokas Masiulis, head of Litgrid, said.
According to him, consumers should still consider economising during peak hours, as this would affect overall prices.
“If all people and companies save a little more at that time, then the overall price of electricity for them would be reduced,” Masiulis said.
According to him, the peak hours are 9-11 am and 5-7 pm.
“It is during these peak hours that the price goes up the most and then it affects the average price,” he added.
According to Masiulis, electricity consumption in Lithuania has gone down by around 10%.
“People heard the calls to economise and, moreover, since the price of electricity went up, they started to use electricity more efficiently,” he said.
When asked whether the Lithuanian government could introduce energy rationing, and not just recommendations to save, Masiulis said such a scenario was hard to imagine.
“The instantaneous maximum consumption in Lithuania is 2,200 megawatts, which happens in very cold winters. However, we can take about 2,000 megawatts from other countries through interconnections alone, and we have about 4,000 megawatts of installed internal capacity. Unless there are some special, unplanned scenarios, in case of a war or something like that,” he said.
Lithuania also has a plan in place for what it would do in the event of an energy shortage.
“There is nothing new here, there has always been such a plan, and the energy industry has it. If there is a crisis situation, disconnections start with industrial companies, commercial companies. Households and important institutions are the last in line,” explained Litgrid’s CEO. (LRT/Business World Magazine)