Lighting up Vilnius greenfield areas

A loan agreement with NIB has brought EUR 15 million to Lithuanian Rytų Skirstomieji Tinklai (RST) for financing the company’s investment programme earmarked for upgrading the power distribution grid in and around Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius.

The investment programme includes the construction and reconstruction of transformer substations and distribution points as well as the development of a network management system. This will enable the company to control the main equipment of the network by remote control.

A 110/10 kV transformer substation and a distribution point have been recently built in the vicinity of Vilnius.

“This is a completely new type of distribution equipment. The transformer substation uses state-of-the-art tools for controlling and transferring the data kit and is equipped with modern security systems,” explains Vidmantas Stukas, head of the RST Network Development Department.

“The city is expanding in a greenfield area, where very little infrastructure has been available until recently,” says Mr Stukas.

RST’s investment has facilitated energy supply to new, large industrial consumers. If the area develops as expected, the new substation will soon see the demand for its load capacity increasing by several thousand households.

Not only greenfield

Although Vilnius’s newly developed or greenfield areas are a high priority for RST, the historical centre of the city also needs a reliable power supply.

“Several new hotels are built in the city every year. The central department store has recently been expanded. More companies want their facades lit up. One of the bridges over the river Neris in central Vilnius has recently lit up,” comments Mr Stukas, mentioning only the most obvious newbies on the consumer list.

Areas further afield also receive due attention and their share of modernisation. About 1,000 power users in Panevezys County in central Lithuania are now being serviced through a renewed 10 kV distribution point. The modernisation has improved the quality of power transmission to a logistics centre of one of the country’s major retail operators.

Established in 2001 upon the reorganisation of a national power utility, RST is a public electricity company supplying and distributing electrical energy in Lithuania. The company currently services the eastern half of the country, including the capital area with its population of 1.7 million.