The company states that at the end of 2021, the amount of capacity reserved for the planned power stations in the “Distribution Network” was around 180 MW. So, within half a year, this volume has increased six times in the distribution system alone. Up to now, renewable electricity resource generation facilities with a total capacity of approximately 300 MW have already been connected to the distribution system and are currently operating.
–
On the other hand, the total amount of reserved production capacity for the planned power stations, both in the distribution and transmission system, for which JSC “Augstsprieguma tīkls” is responsible, exceeds at least four times the current actual consumption in the country.
–
The maximum consumption load in Latvia according to the control measurements carried out by “High Voltage Network” in 2021 was 1.25 GW, while the minimum was 0.52 GW, the average consumption in summer was around 0.8 GW, in winter – around 0.9 GW. The total amount of capacity reserved for future power stations at both electricity supply operators currently already exceeds 4.5 GW, which is many times more than what is needed in Latvia. Moreover, this is without taking into account the amount of generation already connected to both power supply systems.
–
At the same time, the company explains that the capacity reservation of microgenerations is not affected – anyone interested can install solar panels, for example, on the roof of a private house. Customers who want to produce electricity themselves can connect to the distribution system either a microgenerator – a generating device for the production of electricity in small volumes with a capacity of up to 11.1 kilowatts (kW), or a power plant – a generating device exceeding 11.1 kW and intended for the production of electricity in larger volumes, including for commercial purposes – electricity trade.
–
In order to streamline the capacity reservation procedure in the conditions of the existing huge interest, the validity period of technical requirements has been shortened from May 1 of this year – for projects that want to be connected to the electricity distribution system, it has been shortened from two years to nine months. Amendments to the Electricity Market Law have also just been approved, which provide for the introduction of a fee for system capacity reservation for power plants with a capacity of over 50 kW, which the developer will recover if the project is implemented according to the deadline.
—
