News & events

2016-12-28

Record Amount of Wind Power Connected to the Transmission Grid in 2016

A 7.5 MW wind farm has been put into operation in Anykščiai District. Its three turbines 2.5 MW each are the first ones in the eastern part of Lithuania to be connected to the electricity transmission grid – all other wind farms operate in West Lithuania. 
 
The installed capacity of wind power in Lithuania is 500 MW. According to Daivis Virbickas, CEO of Litgrid, the Lithuanian electricity transmission grid operator, this is the optimum amount of wind power that can be connected to the present transmission grid without adverse effects on the power system. Furthermore, the opportunities offered by a 110 kV transmission grid have been utilised in full on the seaside: investments in the grid infrastructure would be required in order to continue the development of wind energy in the region. 
 
‘This year alone, we connected wind farms totalling over 178 MW to the transmission grid. However, as shown by the results of a study conducted in collaboration with Kaunas University of Technology, from now on each new 100 MW wind farm will require a 24 MW reserve, which can only be ensured by power plants with flexible generation. So the wind energy development must be accompanied by the development of flexible and sustainable generation‘, says D. Virbickas.
 
At present 13 wind farms are connected to the high-voltage electricity transmission grid of Lithuania. At the beginning of the year, a 73.5 MW wind farm – the largest in the Baltic States – was put into operation in Pagėgiai District, followed by a 60 MW wind farm in Šilutė District and a 45 MW wind farm in Mažeikių District later in summer. 
 
Electricity generated by the wind farms during eleven months accounted for 36.6% of all local generation. This indicator for 2015 was 17%, 2014 – 13%, and 2013 - 11%. 
 
According to Litgrid‘s network development plan, in 2025 the capacity of power of plants generating electricity from renewable energy sources may total approx. 1,000 MW and the summary capacity of wind power may reach 700 MW.