The Lithuania parliament has delayed by 3 years until 1 January 2026 the third stage of liberalisation of the electricity retail supply market in the country. The reform, which was postponed due to a significant increase in electricity prices, would have ended regulated tariff for the purchase and supply price of electricity, which makes 40% of the final cost in the first half of 2022, for all consumers below 1,000 kWh/year (more than half of total consumers).. The other components of the price – electricity transmission, distribution, and public service obligation – would continue to be set by the government. The state-owned power utility Ignitis accounted for 62% of the retail power market in term of electricity supply volume in the third quarter of 2021.
Lithuania already started a gradual liberalisation of residential tariffs on the retail electricity market. In January 2021, final electricity prices were deregulated for consumers who consume more than 5,000 kWh/year. The threshold was lowered to 1,000 kWh/year for the second stage in January 2022. Following the new electricity law of 2000, the opening of the market took place in several phases: in 2002 for consumers over 20 GWh , in 2003 for consumers over 9 GWh/year, and in 2004 for all professional consumers. Since 2007, all consumers have been free to choose their electricity supplier. Regulated tariffs were removed for non-household consumers in several phases: capacity over 400 kW in 2010, over 100 kW in 2011, over 30 kW in 2012, and all others in 2013.