Seimas decision will not affect Vilnius, Kaunas CHP projects, Lithuanian Energy says

“The existing Seimas decision does not have impact on our existing projects,” the company told BNS Lithuania.

Earlier in the day, lawmakers allowed the government to change decisions related to the Vilnius and Kaunas CHP projects, among other things, banning the construction of such facilities closer than 20 kilometers from residential areas.

MP Mykolas Majauskas, representing the opposition conservative Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, asked Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis during the Government Hour in the parliament on what the government panel set up to evaluate the above-mentioned projects would do next.

“The panel has already submitted its draft but it has nothing to do with the adopted law as it evaluated other things, first of all, economic substantiality. I wouldn’t relate this with the law,” he said.

The adopted amendments still need presidential approval, and members of opposition political groups on Thursday asked the president to veto them.

If the amendments came into force, they would pose threat to the waste-to-energy plants being built in Vilnius and Kaunas by Lietuvos Energija and Fortum Heat Lietuva, which is part of Finland’s energy group Fortum. Fortum Heat Lietuva already operates a waste-to-energy CHP plant in Klaipėda.

The Vilnius facility, worth 345 million euros, is set to come online by the end of the next year, and the 150 million euro worth Kaunas plant is expected to start operations by 2020.