Minister Lehtomäki: Russia not actively pushing for undersea electric cable

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The Russian government is closely following the debate in Finland over a proposed underwater electric cable to connect the two countries.
      Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, Paula Lehtomäki (Centre) said on Tuesday that the Finnish government is aware of discussions concerning the matter, but that Russia has not been engaging in any active lobbying for the project.
      Lehtomäki made her comments after a meeting of the Finnish–Russian Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation, which met in Helsinki on Tuesday.
      On Wednesday, the prime ministers of the two countries officially open a "Russian Economy Days" forum in Helsinki
      At Tuesday’s meeting, Russia was represented by German Gref, Russia’s Minister of Economics and Trade. At a press conference, Gref did not directly take a stand on the electric cable project. He simply nodded as Lehtomäki said that the issue is being handled through proper channels at the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The Finnish government expects a proposal to emerge from there sometime in the summer.
     
Because of the importance attached to the project, the matter will be handled by the whole government, and not just the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mauri Pekkarinen.
      Gref would only say that there is a great consensus on the handling of the licence application, which would appear to mean that Russia is confident that the matter is under balanced consideration.
      If the cable is built, it could allow Finland to import 1,000 megawatts of electricity from Russia - about the same as the output of a commercial nuclear reactor.
      The project is important for the Russian government, because the offer was made by the fully state-owned Rosenergoatom. The company controls Russia's nuclear power plants, including the one at Sosnovyi Bor, which is on the Gulf of Finland near Kernovo, the planned starting point of the proposed undersea cable.
     
Finland already buys electricity from Russia, which is brought in by land cable with a capacity of about 1,300 megawatts. The seller is the partially privatised RAO UES concern, which controls non-nuclear electric power sources in Russia.
      Rosenergoatom hopes to use the cable to Finland to open a new export channel beyond this country to the rest of the European Union. Finland is currently the only possible conduit for such a large amount of electricity, because the electric grids of the former socialist countries are not capable of transferring such large amounts of power.
      United Power, the company which is promoting the project on behalf of Rosenergoatom, has promised to finance the construction of the cable, which is expected to cost between EUR 250-300 million.
      The plans are sharply opposed by Fingrid, the Finnish company responsible for electricity transmission, which warns that the move would require major investments into the existing power grid.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Russian Prime Minister on visit to Finland (18.4.2006)
  Fingrid CEO gives dire warning of Russian cable project (11.4.2006)
  Vanhanen denies "pressure" from Russia on undersea electric cable issue (3.4.2006)
  Study: Underwater mains cable from Russia would lower price of electricity in Finland by 3-9 percent (23.3.2006)
  Proposed undersea cable would double electricity imports from Russia (15.12.2005)

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