Belarus provides Latvia with emergency power reserve

The Belarusian power system provided emergency aid to Latvia in line with the agreement on the use of emergency power reserve in the electricity ring Belarus-Russia-Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania (BRELL), BelTA learnt from Belenergo.

Following Latvia’s request, Belarus provided the neighboring country with an emergency reserve of 200MW. The amount of electricity provided to Latvia totaled 600,000 kWh. According to Belenergo, power was transferred on 10 June. Electricity deficit in the Latvian power system was caused by the emergency shut-in of unit No.1 (the output of 380MW) at the Riga CHPP-2 due to a hole in the main steampipe.

Emergency aid to Latvia was provided within the interstate cooperation between the BRELL member states. The BRELL agreement was signed by the energy companies of five countries on 6 December 2010. In accordance with the agreement, each party to the agreement keeps the power reserve for the common needs of the BRELL electricity ring at its power plants in order provide assistance, if necessary, to the neighboring grid on a reimbursable basis.

Technologically this element of interstate interaction allows each individual country to stop maintaining large quantities of reserves in the power system to be on the safe side in the event of loss of power, and thus avoid unnecessary fuel consumption, Belenergo said.

In 2008 the international assistance allowed Belarus to cope smoothly with the emergency shutdown of Lukoml state district power plant. Within 10 minutes all 8 units of the plant got disconnected and around 55% of consumers were left without electricity. At the time of the shutdown the plant generated 2.4GW while the total energy consumption in the country at that hour was 4.4- 4.5GW. Thanks to the synchronous interconnection of the power grids the Belarusian power system then managed to recover quickly and avoid serious accidents. Electricity in Belarus came from Lithuania, Latvia and Russia.