Electricity provides us with heat, light and comfort. It is a resource, which has to be used responsibly. The modern trends show that more often customers want to generate green energy themselves.

Today, social responsibility for the environment, sustainability and the rational use of energy resources is determined by international commitments, as well as by European Union and Latvian legislation, covering a wide range of stakeholders – private individuals, legal entities, energy producers and traders.

Latvenergo was the first company in the Baltics to establish the Elektrum Energy Centre (formerly known as the Elektrum Energy Efficiency Centre) back in 1997 to raise public awareness of climate change, sustainable production of renewable energy and the smart and efficient use of energy resources.

The Elektrum Energy Centre is a unique place in the Baltics where everyone from schoolchildren to entrepreneurs can gain practical knowledge, inspiration and support on the way to sustainable living and responsible energy decisions.

Over the years, the competence accumulated by the Centre’s experts, the long-standing research carried out and the proven recommendations are regularly used by households, businesses, public administration bodies and educational institutions. The Centre is also a meeting place for professionals from the sector to discuss and share experiences on energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainability.

The Energy Centre team is convinced that by improving everyday habits and practicing conscious sustainability, it is possible to both reduce spending on energy and preserve our shared environmental resources so that Latvia can be more beautiful, environmentally- and people-friendly every day.

The Elektrum Energy Centre offers everyone free of charge:

• A wide range of educational materials and one-to-one consultations, as well as events  – seminars, webinars, discussions and lectures on topical issues in the field of energy efficiency and sustainability.
• For companies – guest lectures with the participation of our experts and training programmes to educate employees on energy efficiency and sustainability.
• For students from form 5 to 12 – competency-based face-to-face lessons  to learn about the energy sector and environmentally friendly energy production, as well as to understand the importance of energy-efficient habits in everyday life.
• For pre-school and primary school children – an educational cartoon series “Beat the energy monsters”, worksheets and a programme of face-to-face activities.
• For teachers – a wide range of teaching materials and worksheets to use in teaching.

For Elektrum customers, we provide a unique free energy efficiency programme, Energo Pulss, which has been used by more than 30 000 Elektrum customers. By signing up for the programme, you will receive a monthly overview of your home’s electricity consumption, a comparison with other comparable homes in Latvia and an electricity consumption rating or Energo Pulse Index on a scale from 1 to 10, as well as energy efficiency tips from our experts to reduce your monthly energy consumption.

In recent years, we can hear the combination of words “climate change” at every turn, and this issue is on the agenda of politicians around the world. What is the contribution of Latvenergo, a company, for which care of the surrounding environment is one of cornerstones of sustainable development, in order to operate in a more climate-friendly manner?

Latvenergo AS has already accomplished a lot and continues activities to improve efficiency and increase the use of RES, thus reducing CO₂ emissions, and on its own initiative supports replenishment of fish resources, makes artificial spawning nests for fish and cleans rivers in cooperation with environment experts, biologists and hydrobiologists.

Each year Latvenergo releases more than 8 million juvenile fish of various species – Baltic salmon, sea trout, zander, whitefish, pike and lamprey – in the Daugava River basin.

Placement of artificial spawning nests for fish in hydropower plant reservoirs facilitates preservation and replenishment of fish stocks; therefore, each year artificial fish spawning nests made by more than 400 employees of Latvenergo Group are placed in the Daugava River near Ikšķile and Kaibala, in which at least 20 million fish eggs are spawned.

Over several years many tributaries of the Daugava River have suffered from fallen trees, beaver dams, fords created by deposits and water plants; therefore, an initiative for cleaning of rivers of the Daugava River basin was initiated in 2017 - the Vedze River was cleaned from deposits and fallen trees, and a project of cleaning the Pērse River continues.

Latvenergo generates electricity at its power plants with zero (at hydropower plants) or the lowest amounts of CO₂ emissions (at combined heat and power plants). Daugava HPPs with zero emissions ensure the status of Latvia as a green country, whereas the reconstruction of CHPPs has allowed to achieve the lowest amounts of emissions.

Modern technologies allow electricity users to become active market participants, who generate, consume and sell to others the generated, but not consumed electricity.

Currently, the role of energy consumers in the world and in Latvia changes. At the moment, increasingly more customers turn from passive electricity recipients into active users, who generate green energy by using solar panels, selling the energy accumulated by electric vehicle batteries, but not consumed by themselves, and using the opportunities offered by micro network, thus engaging in the market.