News & events

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