New €170 M electricity connection links Estonia and Latvia
Estonia, Tallin: A new electricity connection between Estonia and its southern neighbour Latvia has been completed.
Image source: ERR
Estonia, Tallin: A new electricity connection between Estonia and its southern neighbour Latvia has been completed.
The connection was part-European Union funded and it represents part of an ongoing process of synchronisation with the grid systems of the rest of the union, away from those of the Russian Federation.
The connection, which cost a total of around $208 M (€170 M) to install, is the third of its kind, with operation set to commence on New Year’s Day.
From the beginning of 2021, the line is available to the electricity market and adds approximately 600 MW of transmission capacity between the two countries.
Taavi Veskimägi, board chair of grid distributor Elering, said: “It is a pleasure to acknowledge that the new connection was completed exactly on the initially agreed deadline and according to the initial budget regardless of the difficult epidemic situation and various challenges on the construction sites above all due to warm winters.
The new connection significantly contributes to improving the security of supply, it is reported, by reinforcing north-south electricity connections in addition to the existing grid system western Estonia.
In Estonia itself, the connection comprises the 175 km Harku-Lihula-Sindi 330/110 kV line and the 14 km Kilingi-Nomme-Riga 330 kV line section running to the Estonian-Latvian border, Elering says.
The first of these lines, constructed primarily by Empower and Leonhard Weiss, was powered up on 15 December and the second, developed principally by Empower and requiring coordination with Latvian operator AST, two days later.
The new connection had already undergone testing through to the end of last year.
EU support for the project amounted to 65 %, with the remainder funded by the auction revenue of transmission capacity between the two countries.
Source: ERR