News & events

2013-11-11

The last contract signed in the framework of LitPol Link interconnection project

The Lithuanian electricity transmission system operator Litgrid and A. Žilinskio ir Ko UAB, a company engaged in the design and construction of infrastructure objects, today signed the final contract as part of the strategic project of building the LitPol Link power interconnection between Lithuania and Poland.  
Under the contract, which is valued at LTL 73.3 million, the contractor is obliged by June 2015 to construct a 51 km power line from the Alytus transformer substation to the Polish border. The preparatory works will start this year and the construction of the power line will begin in the spring of 2014.
 
“The idea of building the power interconnection between Lithuania and Poland was born some twenty years ago and its realisation involved hard work and efforts of many people, international agreements, negotiations and the harmonisation of the project with various state organisations. The signing of the contract marks the final stage of preparation for building the power interconnection.  In the spring next year we plan to start the construction,” said Karolis Sankovski, deputy CEO of Litgrid in charge of strategic projects.
 
“We are proud of being able to contribute to the implementation of this project aimed at connecting the electricity systems of the two countries. We have accumulated vast experience in building electricity system infrastructure objects. At the moment we are building the Klaipėda–Telšiai power line, which is part of the other strategic project – a power interconnection with Sweden,“ said Žilvinas Žilinskis, CEO of A.Žilinskio ir Ko UAB.
 
LitPol Link will run through over 400 land plots in the districts of Alytus and Lazdijai. Litgrid paid out the owners of these land plots a compensation of LTL 4 million in servitude agreements. Under the Law on Electricity of the Republic of Lithuania by signing a servitude agreement a landowner grants access to electricity transmission system operators to enter his land on which a power line is built.
 
“At the early stage of the project we have to solve the issue of gaining access to private lands and their surroundings through which the power line will pass. We want to thank the landowners who gave us access to their lands. We have obliged to notify them in advance about the start of the construction works that we plan to begin in the spring so as to cause them as little inconvenience as possible”, added K. Sankovski.
 
Earlier, on 30 September, Litgrid and A. Žilinskio ir Ko UAB singed a LTL 43.5 million contract on the reconstruction of the 330 kV switchyard of the Alytus transformer substation. The reconstruction should be completed in by the end of 2015. In February this year Litgrid signed a LTL 288 million contract with ABB on designing and building a HVDC back-to-back converter station with a 400 kV switchyard in Alytus.
 
Apart from building a power line stretching from the Lithuania-Poland border to a substation in Elk in Poland, LitPol Link also involves other eleven investment projects in the northeaster part of Poland. The construction works in Poland are carried out smoothly and according to the schedule: the environmental impact assessment study is nearing its completion, servitudes are being established and agreements with landowners of gaining access to the land on which the power line will be built are being signed.   
 
The international power interconnection LitPol Link between Lithuania and Poland will connect the electricity transmission systems of the Baltic States and Western Europe and create conditions for the integration of the power markets and enhance the competition of the market players. LitPol Link will operate at a capacity 500 MW by the end of 2015.