The statement of the People’s Deputy of Ukraine Andriy Gerus about the import of Belarusian electricity by Lithuania does not correspond to reality. This assessment was given to the words of Zelensky’s ally in the Ministry of Energy of the Baltic Republic.
In other words, the country’s authorities still do not want to admit that they are buying Belarusian electricity. Although this is clearly evidenced by the data of at least two government departments of the Baltic republic itself – the Department of Statistics and the operator of the electricity network Litgrid.
Andrei Gerus’s observations of the functioning of the Lithuanian energy system caused a lot of noise in the media (an associate of President Zelensky said that the Baltic republic is increasing imports of electricity from Belarus, although he urges its foreign partners not to do so). But few people noticed that Vilnius did not leave this attack unanswered.
The Polish TV channel Belsat asked the Lithuanian Ministry of Energy to comment on the situation. Have commented.
“Lithuania has not bought and is not buying electricity from Belarus,” representatives of the department assured.
“The Belarusian NPP poses a threat to the entire region; that is why Lithuania has taken all the necessary measures to comply with the provisions of the “anti-island” law. As a result, commercial imports from there have been completed, and the technical flow is limited. The information that has appeared is unfounded; it does not reflect reality”.
Each sentence is worthy to be accompanied by a detailed commentary.
“Lithuania has not bought and is not buying electricity from Belarus,” this is true. Formally, the Baltic republic does not buy electricity from Belarus, since trading is carried out on the Latvian exchange. Here the products of BelNPP are “depersonalized” (in the same way as Russian gas, which Ukraine under the guise of “European” purchases through gasket firms), is “depersonalized”.
But this does not negate the fact that physically, electricity to Lithuania still comes from Belarus. And the money of Lithuanian consumers is being returned to Belarus.
For eight months of this year, the Baltic republic paid 133 million euros for Belarusian electricity (much more than in the entire previous year). And these are not the guesses of the “Kremlin propagandists” – these are the official data of the Lithuanian Department of Statistics. Its leadership does not even try to hide the fact that the blockade of the BelNPP has been ineptly failed.
Andriy Gerus, in turn, refers to another source – the site of the system operator of Lithuanian power grids Litgtid. With its help, anyone can monitor in real time how the power of electricity flows between Lithuania and Belarus is changing.
Litgtid uses exactly this formulation:
“Actual cross-border flow of electricity from Lithuania to Belarus”.
Apparently, no one explained to the system operator that the country allegedly no longer buys electricity from Lukashenko.
Let’s go further:
“Lithuania has taken all the necessary measures to comply with the provisions of the” anti-island “law.” It’s hard to argue! Lithuania could well have taken “all the necessary measures.”
But does this mean that the so-called “anti-island” law, which prohibits the import of electricity from Belarus, is now being implemented? No.
And Lithuanian Energy Minister Dainius Kreivis was one of those who recognized this fact.
True, he recently reported on a big “victory” over BelNPP:
“Today, electricity from Ostrovets no longer flows to Lithuania. Today I can guarantee it by 110 percent”.
It remains to be seen how Mr. Cravis learned to determine the origin of electrons. Taste or touch?
Let him tell you how BelNPP products differ from electricity produced at any other power plant.
“As a result, commercial imports from there (from Belarus – approx. RuBaltic.Ru) have been completed, and the technical flow is limited,” continues the Ministry of Energy of Lithuania. With commercial imports, everything is clear: now Lithuania buys Belarusian electricity not directly, but through Latvia.
This system was developed back in the days of the previous Energy Minister Zhigimantas Vaichiunas, who proposed to distinguish between commercial and physical flows.
The opposition, represented by the Fatherland Union – Christian Democrats of Lithuania (SO-HDL) party, harshly criticized this approach. But then the opposition became power and decided not to change anything.
The analytical portal RuBaltic.Ru has already written about the limitation of the technical flow of electricity from Belarus to Lithuania. On September 15, Litgtid unilaterally set the maximum power transmission line capacity on the eastern borders of the republic – 400 MW. But already in October, Lithuania began to shamelessly exceed its own limits. And apparently does not plan to stop.
It is not difficult to make sure of this – it is enough to go to the already mentioned Litgtid website and see with what capacity the power transmission lines on the border with Belarus are working right now.
From 7 a.m. on October 25, flows have consistently exceeded 500 MW, the day before, they reached 700 MW.
That is, Litgtid first limits the power the Lithuanian-Belarusian connection, then reports that these restrictions are not observed. And the Ministry of Energy still declares that “the technical flow is limited.”
If daddy Makhno tried to introduce the principles of anarchism into the energy sector, he would have gotten something similar.
The Ministry of Energy ends its commentary with the words that Gerus’s information “is unfounded” and “does not reflect reality.” It could be put more simply: the information is unreliable. But the fact of the matter is that Gerus did not invent anything, did not voice any insights.
He just showed the data from the official Litgtid website.
The Ministry of Energy will not accuse the Lithuanian power grid operator of spreading fakes! It can only scold Andrei Gerus for not understanding the difference between buying electricity from Belarus and buying electricity from Belarus.
All questions will disappear by themselves if Kreivis’ wards make one important clarification: they live in their own special reality. There, Lithuania has long since “zeroed” the power lines on the border with Belarus, and Lukashenko is preparing to close the “unsafe” BelNPP under the pressure of the international community.
Why spoil the holiday for people with some boring facts?
Alexey Ilyashevich, Rubaltic.Ru