NordBalt (also formerly known as SwedLit) is a
submarine power cable between
Klaipėda
Klaipėda ( ; ) is a city in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. It is the List of cities in Lithuania, third-largest city in Lithuania, the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, fifth-largest city in the Baltic States, and the capi ...
in
Lithuania
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
and
Nybro in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
, operating since 2015. The purpose of the cable is to facilitate the trading of power between the Baltic and Nordic electricity markets, and to increase the supply and
energy security
Energy security is the association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption (as opposed to household energy insecurity). Access to cheaper energy has become essential to the functioning of modern ...
in both markets.
History
The project was originally suggested in 2004. Original project Swindlit was aimed at construction of the
wind farm
A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...
in the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...
and ensuring the electricity transmission to Sweden and Lithuania. The participants of this project were interested also in
Kruonis Pumped Storage Plant as an accumulator of variable wind energy.
In August 2006, the Lithuanian and Swedish transmission grid operators
Lietuvos Energija and
Svenska kraftnät agreed to launch a feasibility study of a possible
interconnector.
[
] In February 2007, Lietuvos Energija and Svenska Kraftnät signed an agreement with Swedish consulting company SWECO International on preparation of feasibility study. The study was completed in March 2008 with positive conclusions for the implementation of the project.
[
]
On 9 July 2009, Lietuvos Energija,
Latvenergo and Svenska Kraftnät signed a memorandum of understanding on the NordBalt project.
[
] Invitation for pre-qualification for NordBalt converters' and cable procurement was launched in December 2009.
[
] The sea bottom survey was conducted by
Marin Mätteknik by 13 December 2009.
[
] On 17 December 2010,
Litgrid, a newly established
transmission system operator of Lithuania who took the project over from Lietuvos Energija, and Svenska kraftnät, signed a €270 million contract with
ABB according to which ABB manufactured the cable.
[
] According to another contract, signed on 20 December 2010, ABB supplied two converter stations.
[
]
In March 2013 the government of Lithuania approved construction plans for the coastal area. On 18 April 2013 the Swedish government gave its final approval of the construction of a power cable. Cable laying started on 11 April 2014. It was laid by using C/S ''Lewek Connector''.
The cable laying was disrupted several times by the
Russian Navy[
][
] within the
Exclusive Economic Zone
An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...
of Lithuania causing the Lithuanian prime minister to summon the Russian ambassador and protest against Russia's violation of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
'
Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). On 9 June 2015, the cable laying works were completed.
The cable was officially inaugurated on 14 December 2015.
[
] However, due to fire near the Nybro substation, test transmission with a capacity of 30 MW started only on 1 February 2016.
[
][
][
] On 17 February 2016, electricity transmitted via Nordbalt was traded first time at
Nord Pool Spot.
[
]
Technical features
The interconnector uses
high-voltage direct current (HVDC). The length of the cable is , of which is the submarine cable, is the land cable in Sweden, and is the land cable in Lithuania. Its maximum capacity is 700 MW with a ramping restriction of 600 MW,
[
]
where the 700 MW capacity corresponds to an annual transmission capacity of 6.1 TWh.
Economy
The interconnector cost €580 million, of which the submarine cable cost €270 million.
[ €175 million was paid by the ]European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
.[
It connects the Nord Pool Spot bidding areas southern Sweden (SE4) and Lithuania (LT).]
See also
* Energy in Lithuania
* Electricity sector in Sweden
* List of high-voltage transmission links in Sweden
* List of high-voltage transmission links in Lithuania
* Estlink, cable between Estonia and Finland
References
{{reflist
External links
Svenska kraftnät project page Litgrid
Electrical interconnectors to and from the Baltic grid
Electrical interconnectors to and from the Synchronous Grid of Continental Europe
Electrical interconnectors to and from the Nordic grid
Submarine power cables
HVDC transmission lines
Electric power infrastructure in Sweden
Electric power transmission systems in Lithuania
Connections across the Baltic Sea
Lithuania–Sweden relations
2015 establishments in Lithuania
2015 establishments in Sweden
Energy infrastructure completed in 2015
Kalmar County