New €170 million Estonia-Latvia power line will start operating in new year
A new electricity connection between Estonia and Latvia has been powered up is ready, becoming available to the markets from January 1. 600 Mw of transmission power will pass between the two countries.
On the territory of Estonia, the Harku-Lihula-Sindi 330/110-Kv line, and the Kilingi-Nõmme-Riga 330-Kv line running from the Estonian-Latvian border, will make up the connection.
The Harku-Lihula-Sindi line was activated on December 15, and the line from the Kilingi-Nõmme substation to Riga, in cooperation with the Latvian system operator AST, on December 17.
The new line is undergoing a testing period ahead of full usage in the new year.
The new connection will improve the security of supply and strengthen the electrical connections running north to south. Moreover, the connection is an important step in connecting Estonia and other Baltic states to the main Europe grid, part of a process of decoupling from the Russian grid and the associated energy dependency.
"The completion of the third Estonian-Latvian electricity connection will enable the renovation of transmission lines starting from the Narva region and heading to Latvia through Tartu and Valga to start in 2021, which must be completed for the change of synchronous area," Taavi Veskimägi, board chair at grid distributor Elering said.
The Harku-Lihula-Sindi line is 175 km long and was built by Empower and Leonhard Weiss. The section of the line from the Kilingi-Nõmme substation to the Estonian-Latvian border is 14 km long.
The new connection cost €170 million per two states, €112 million of which is covered by the EU.
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Editor: Roberta Vaino