Announcements

Today, in an interview with Dienas Bizness, Ilvija Boreiko, Member of the Management Board and Chief Development Officer of Latvenergo, outlined the group’s investment plans for green energy production. The key takeaways regarding the planned investment volumes and funding sources are summarised below.

Scope of investment

The Group’s 2024 investment plan earmarks a total of € 460 million in capital expenditures. These investments will be primarily concentrated in three major areas. The first area is capital investments in distribution networks – € 150 million in total.

The second investment area is the maintenance, improvement and reconstruction of existing power generation assets – HPPs and CHPs. In total, € 70 million in capital investments will be allocated to the maintenance and reconstruction of existing assets. The largest project in this category is the continuation of the Daugava HPP hydro unit reconstruction project, involving the refurbishment of the remaining three unreconstructed hydro-units (out of a total of 23). The second most significant project is the construction of a reserve spillway for the Pļaviņu HPP. The project is scheduled for completion by 2030. The precise total costs of the project will be determined following the completion of the construction design and the procurement of all the necessary construction works.

The third major investment area comprises capital investments in renewable solar and wind energy projects. The total planned capital investment volume for 2024 is approximately € 200 million. The largest projects in 2024 are being implemented in Latvia and Lithuania. Currently, seven solar park projects are in various stages of development in Lithuania, with six already operational. Latvenergo’s total solar power plant capacity in the neighbouring country is planned to reach slightly over 300 MW. Green energy projects with a total capacity of up to 400 MW are also planned in Estonia. Currently, 13 solar parks with a total capacity of 108 MW are under construction in Latvia. Of these, 12 are scheduled to be commissioned in 2024.

Funding sources

The planned investments will be financed through a combination of three sources: operating cash flow, borrowings from credit institutions and investment banks, and the issuance of bonds. As the planned investment volume for the development of the project of SIA Latvijas vēja parki exceeds one billion euros, we anticipate that it will be necessary to raise finance from international capital markets, as well as to issue international bonds.