19.10.2022
In Latvia, micro-generation or self-production of electricity in households, mostly using solar panels, continues to develop at an extremely rapid pace. This week, the total number of micro-generators connected to AS Sadales tīkls has reached 10,000, with their total capacity reaching 80 megawatts (MW). With this capacity, on a sunny summer day, it is possible to produce the amount of electricity that corresponds to approximately 10% of the total daily electricity consumption in Latvia.
The year 2022 has become a turning point in the development of renewable energy resources (RER) in Latvia; the pace of development of micro-generation is particularly significant. At the end of 2021, about 2,000 micro-generators were connected to Sadales tīkls - currently there are five times more. Accordingly, this year, in less than 10 months, the total number of micro-generators has increased by 8,000.
“Among the Baltic states, we have lagged behind in RER development for many years, but this year, already in the first half of the year, we surpassed Estonia in terms of micro-generation development, and we continue this rapid rise. Practically, we have run a marathon at sprint speed. The keywords for this achievement are collaboration and digitised processes. Cooperation between the electricity distribution operator, customers and ministries, which prepared state support programmes for the installation of solar panels, as well as fully digitalised process of connecting micro-generators allowed us to reach consistently fast processing rates for each newly submitted micro-generator connection application,” says Sandis Jansons, Chairman of the Management Board of Sadales tīkls.
Households in Riga and Pierīga are most active in terms of producing electricity
99% of the micro generators connected to Sadales tīkls are solar panels. The data collected by the company show that the greatest interest in the household self-production of electricity by installing solar panels is among customers in Riga and Pierīga municipalities. The largest number of solar energy micro-generators - about 1020 with a total capacity of about 8.2 MW - have been installed in Mārupe Municipality, followed by Riga with 860 micro-generators (total capacity of about 6.9 MW), as well as Ropaži Municipality with 660 (total capacity of about 5.6 MW).
In Latvia, interest in the development of power plants also does not stop. In August this year, a record number of applications for connecting power plants were received by Sadales tīkls - 214, but this record was already broken in September with 274 applications. Currently, about 1,100 MW of generation capacity have been reserved in Sadales tīkls for future power stations, and less complex projects could be completed as early as in the summer of 2023, the total production capacity of which could reach 200 MW, significantly increasing the share of solar generation in the total energy resources portfolio of the country.
It is possible to connect a micro-generator or power generation device with a capacity of up to 11.1 kilowatts (kW), as well as a power station with a capacity of up to 14,999 MW to the infrastructure of the electricity distribution operator. Larger power plants are connected to the electricity transmission network (AS Augstsprieguma tīkls). More information on connecting a power plant or a micro-generator to Sadales tīkls is available on the company’s website www.sadalestikls.lv.