Russian state-held power utility Inter RAO has commissioned the 455 MW Pregolsky gas-fired power project worth in Kaliningrad (Russia). The plant is part of a RUB100bn (US$1.6bn) project to increase power generation capacity by 1 GW to be completed in 2021. It is part of a strategy to reduce the region's dependency on the EU power grid. Kaliningrad has no border with mainland Russia and depends on Lithuania, which in turn imports power from mainland Russia. As Lithuania, along with Latvia and Estonia, intend to disconnect from the Russian grid and synchronise with continental Europe by 2025, Kaliningrad has to develop self-sufficient power generation capacity by then. As part of this project, inter RAO commissioned the 157 MW Mayakovskaya and 159 MW Talakhovskaya gas-fired power plants in March 2018. A fourth (coal-fired) plant is to be completed in 2020, and will run as a backup plant.
More broadly, Russian authorities are trying to bolster the enclave's energy security and the state-run company Gazprom commissioned the 2 Mt/year (2.7 bcm/year) Marshal Vasilevsky floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) in January 2019. The unit can store 174,000 m3 of gas and is now connected to the existing gas pipeline near the Kaliningradskoye underground gas storage (UGS) facility. Until recently, Kaliningrad was receiving gas only through the 2.5 bcm/year Minsk – Vilnius – Kaunas – Kaliningrad transit gas pipeline. With the commissioning of the FSRU, gas pipeline deliveries will be completely halted and the regional demand will be covered entirely with LNG.
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