2015-02-24
Electricity consumption increased by 2 % in 2014
At 9.84 billion kilowatt hours (kWh), or 2.1 % more than in 2013, electricity consumption in 2014 has been the highest since 2009. A total of 72 % of the electricity consumed in Lithuania last year was imported, with slightly more than half — 52 % — coming from Latvia, Estonia and Northern European countries, and 48 % being imported from third countries.
“More electricity was consumed by both the industrial sector and the household consumers. This suggests that last year was an active and economically favourable one for Lithuania, and that the mood is optimistic. Compared with other European Union countries, our electricity consumption rate remains among the lowest, even though — due to the effective transmission network — there are much more opportunities to exploit electricity for industry and business,” said Daivis Virbickas, chairman of the board and CEO at Lithuanian electricity transmission system operator Litgrid.
Electricity production in Lithuania decreased for the second year in a row. Lithuania produced 4.05 billion kWh of electricity in 2014, which is 7.8 % less than in 2013. Lithuanian thermal power plants produced 20 % less electricity last year, and hydroelectric power plants generated 25 % less than in 2013. This reduced the portion of electricity produced from renewable sources, which made up 14.6 % of the total electricity consumed last year. The volume of electricity produced from other renewable sources last year grew by one-fifth.
“Last year, the number of small-scale power generators connected to the distribution network increased considerably. The vast majority of them use renewable energy resources, which means greater uncertainty in forecasting the system balance maintained by the transmission system operator,” said Mr Virbickas.
The network optimization projects carried out by the transmission and distribution system operators allowed for technical network losses to be reduced by 59 million kWh. In 2014, only every twelfth kilowatt hour went to technical costs, which is the best rate in 25 years.
2014 Lithuanian national electricity production and consumption balance data
| TWh / 1 TWh (terawatt-hour) = 1 billion kWh (kilowatt-hours) | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
| Electricity production (Net) | 4.706 | 4.398 | 4.054 |
| Thermal power plants | 3.036 | 2.356 | 1.931 |
| Lithuanian Power Plant | 1.423 | 1.099 | 0.840 |
| Vilnius Power Plant | 0.434 | 0.427 | 0.249 |
| Kaunas Power Plant | 0.321 | 0.261 | 0.162 |
| Panevėžys Power Plant | 0.096 | 0.07 |
0.067
|
| Other thermal power plants | 0.762 | 0.5 | 0.612 |
| Hydroelectric power plants | 0.935 | 1.059 | 1.075 |
| Kaunas Hydroelectric Power Plant | 0.325 | 0.424 | 0.322 |
| Kruonis Pumped Storage Plant | 0.514 | 0.543 | 0.681 |
| Small hydroelectric power plant | 0.096 | 0.092 | 0.072 |
| Wind turbines | 0.538 | 0.6 | 0.636 |
| Wind turbines connected to the transmission grid | 0.437 | 0.494 | 0.515 |
| Wind turbines connected to the distribution grid | 0.101 | 0.106 | 0.121 |
| Other renewable energy resources | 0.197 | 0.383 | 0.411 |
| Biofuel-burning power plants | 0.195 | 0.263 | 0.247 |
| Solar power plants | 0.002 | 0.045 | 0.073 |
| Waste-burning power plants | 0.076 | 0.091 | |
| Commercial system balance (import-export) | 6.619 | 6.946 | 7.623 |
| Import | 8.561 | 7.606 | 7.779 |
| Export | 1.942 | 0.66 | 0.156 |
| Total electricity demand in Lithuania | 11.325 | 11.344 | 11.676 |
| Kruonis Pumped Storage Plant activation | 0.718 | 0.77 | 0.961 |
| Total electricity consumption | 10.607 | 10.574 | 10.715 |
| Network technological costs | 0.947 | 0.929 | 0.870 |
|
Final electricity consumption
|
9.660
|
9.645
|
9.844
|
| Industry | 3.704 | 3.712 | 3.788 |
| Transport | 0.11 | 0.106 | 0.101 |
| Agriculture | 0.23 | 0.233 | 0.237 |
| Residents | 2.642 | 2.591 | 2.656 |
| Services and other consumers | 2.974 | 3.003 | 3.063 |
