Increased technical capacity at the Lithuania-Latvia interconnection point will be available from 13 November

The joint natural gas transmission and storage system operator Conexus Baltic Grid AS (Conexus) and the Lithuanian natural gas transmission system operator Amber Grid have carried out the necessary work to make the increased technical capacity of the interconnection point Kiemenai from Latvia to Lithuania available from 13 November 2023 instead of 1 January 2024 as previously planned.

As a result of the accelerated implementation of the Lithuania-Latvia Interconnection Capacity Increase Project (ELLI), the technical capacity of the Kiemenai interconnection point from 13 November 2023 is set at 90 GWh/d from Lithuania to Latvia with a possible dynamic increase to around 100 GWh/d, while from Latvia to Lithuania it is set at 82 GWh/d with a possible dynamic increase to around 100 GWh/d. Thanks to the successful operation of the TSOs, the first capacity increase for Kiemenai took place already in November 2022.

System operators assessing the need to apply congestion management measures under specific transmission system operating conditions, such as when natural gas is received in Lithuania from both the LNG terminal and the Lithuania-Poland interconnector at almost full capacity, both compressor stations (the Panevėžys compressor station and the Jauniūnai compressor station) operate simultaneously close to their maximum capacity, as well as other transmission system conditions, technical capacities of up to 130 GWh/d from Lithuania to Latvia and up to 119 GWh/d from Latvia to Lithuania can be provided within a limited period of time.

The ELLI project was launched in 2019 as a European project of common interest and involved the implementation of 17 sub-projects, resulting in an increase in the capacity of the Latvian-Lithuanian gas interconnector. The project has a deadline of the end of 2023. It is co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility.