Lithuania to Cut Gas-Fired Generation Due to Import Links

Lithuania plans to further scale back costly gas-fired power generation and expects that planned links with Sweden and Poland will compensate, power producer Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba said on Wednesday.

The Baltic state of 3 million meets more than 60 percent of its electricity needs by imports, the biggest share in the European Union. Its domestic gas-fired generation has shrunk due to the high cost of natural gas imported from Russia.

Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba said it planned to shut four gas-fired units with a total capacity of 900 MW at the country's biggest fossil power plant LPP by the beginning of 2016. Some 300 MW has already been scrapped.

"Withdrawal of LPP (the Lithuania Power Plant) units 1-6 from operation will not have substantial impact on the energy security of Lithuania," the company said.

Security "should increase significantly once the liquefied natural gas (LNGLF) (LNG) terminal and power links with Sweden and Poland are launched", it added.

Lithuania expects to have a 700 MW link to Sweden and a 500 MW link to Poland by end-2015, and to start importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from 2015.

The links would provide opportunities to import cheaper hydro and nuclear power from Sweden, further reducing the need to generate electricity from gas.

After shutting down old units, the LPP will have a total installed capacity of 1,055 MW, including a 455 MW unit which was put into operation in 2012.

The plant generated 1.1 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2013, or about a third of total domestic production, while consumption stood at 9.7 TWh.

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; editing by Andrew Roche)