Trade
755,000
Customers
19,000
Natural gas customers
1,300
Solar panel contracts
90
Charging points for electric cars
Latvenergo Group is one of the largest electricity traders in the Baltic states; it trades electricity and natural gas as well as an extensive range of related products and services under the Elektrum brand.
The total electricity consumption of the Baltic states in 2021 increased by about 4%, reaching 28.7 TWh. Consumption growth was mainly driven by the cooler weather at the beginning and end of the year, a hotter summer, and economic recovery from COVID-19 restrictions. In the reporting year, the market share of Latvenergo Group in the Baltic electricity market was 23%. In 2021, 6.7 TWh of electricity was sold to retail customers in the Baltics, which is 5% more than in 2020.
At the end of 2021, Latvenergo Group had about 755 thousand customers in the Baltic states, of which more than 90 thousand were outside Latvia. In the reporting year, the number of customers increased in both the business customer and household segments. The increase was significantly influenced by the acquisition of a portfolio of almost 20,000 customers in Estonia from the Finnish company Imatra Elekter. With the opening of the household market in Lithuania, the number of Elektrum Lietuva customers has also increased by approximately three times. Of the total number of electricity customers, 96% are household customers and 4% are business customers.
In August 2021, Elektrum Eesti, a subsidiary of the Group, acquired three distribution microgrid service companies in Estonia: Baltic Energy System OÜ, Energiaturu Võrguehitus OÜ, and SNL Energia 1 OÜ. In addition to microgrid services, the companies will be used to develop new products and services in the field of microgeneration and electromobility.
In 2021, natural gas sales of Latvenergo Group to retail customers in the Baltics amounted to 1 TWh, which is twice as much as in 2020. The volume of natural gas sales has increased in all Baltic countries, driven by an increase in the number of customers, especially in the segment of Latvian households and Lithuanian small and medium-sized companies. At the end of 2021, the number of the Group’s natural gas customers in the Baltics reached almost 19 thousand, about half of which are outside Latvia. Of the total number of natural gas customers, 90% are household customers and 10% are business customers.
In the reporting year, the sale of other retail products and services was also developed, including the construction of solar parks for customers and installation of solar panels.
In 2021, more than 1,300 new contracts were signed in the Baltics for the installation of solar panels and sale of shares of remote solar parks, which is twice as much as in 2020. At the end of the year, the total installed capacity of solar panels for retail customers of Latvenergo Group reached 10.7 MW, which makes the Group one of the leading providers of the service in the Baltics. 69% of the capacity is installed for customers outside Latvia.
In April 2021, the Elektrum Lietuva solar park was put into operation, the aim of which is to sell shares of the park to end customers in Lithuania. The park’s entire capacity of 1.5 MW has been sold, and about 90% of the contracts are with household customers. At the end of the year, Latvenergo Group’s largest solar park project, with a total capacity of 13 MW and an area of more than 20 ha, was launched in Lithuania. The solar park will be located in the city of Gargždai, Klaipėda County, and it is expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2022.
The development of the charging network for electric cars continued in the reporting year as well. At the end of 2021, with 90 charging ports in nine Latvian cities, Elektrum is one of the largest charging networks for electric cars in Latvia. Some ports have been installed together with cooperation partners. In 2022, we plan to increase the number of charging ports to 230.
Compared to 2020, the number of charges increased by about 50%, reaching 162 MWh. Since the launch of the network in August 2019, customers of the Elektrum Drive mobile application have charged 288 MWh at public charging points, which provides 1.6 million kilometres of mileage.