Lithuania: Faster power line cabling would cost 500 million euros, says energy operator chief

Lithuania's energy minister, Lukas Savickas, is pushing for accelerated cable work on power lines to better withstand storm damage. He stated that 6,000 kilometers of network need to be cabled to significantly reduce the impact of storms, a stark contrast to the 2,000 kilometers planned for underground replacement in wooded areas over the next few years.

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(The issue of faster cabling – ELTA) I see as one of the essential points we will have to return to, hopefully next week, once the electricity supply restoration work is completed, so that we learn from these storm-related works and implement them within the shortest possible timeframes, allocating appropriate resources for it.

However, Renaldas Radvila, head of the electricity distribution operator (ESO), cautioned that tripling the pace of this work would require an additional 500 million euros. He warned that such an investment could negatively affect Lithuania's business competitiveness on a European and global scale, potentially making the electricity tariff too high for businesses operating in the country.

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We are always balancing – we talk about what we haven't done and what we could have done better. On the other side of the scale, we talk about Lithuanian businesses and Lithuania's competitiveness in Europe and globally. Cabling the same 6,000 kilometers, which would cost half a billion euros, would make the (electricity supply – ELTA) tariff such that our businesses operating in Lithuania, and all our efforts to attract businesses (...) would be under a very big question mark.

"We are always balancing – we talk about what we haven't done and what we could have done better. On the other side of the scale, we talk about Lithuanian businesses and Lithuania's competitiveness in Europe and globally," Radvila explained. He noted that there is no single solution that would fix everything without impacting tariffs.

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There is no single solution where we can say that if a certain amount of money were invested in the network and it were cabled, everything would be fine, because all of this would be reflected in the tariff.

Savickas indicated that a political consensus would be sought to finance the faster cabling. He suggested that part of the cost could be covered through tariffs, with the remainder coming from state financial resources. He believes that continuing the current model, with roughly equal contributions from ESO and the state, could accelerate the pace by at least 50%.

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This work is currently financed both from ESO funds and from additional state financial sources. Continuing this model, approximately half from each side of the required amount, we could accelerate the pace, I think, by at least 50%.