Turnover of the Latvian independent power transmission system operator JSC Augstsprieguma tīkls (AST) in 2017 increased to 159,185,762 euros with profit of 319 thousand euros, according to the unaudited report of 2017 published by the company.  Within the reporting period the company paid more than 22 million euros in taxes.

Compared to 2016, the turnover increase of 36.6% can be mainly explained by the purchase of a 34.36% share of JSC Conexus Baltic Grid, for which a loan has been issued by the State Treasury.

Upon executing decisions adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers at the end of last year, AST purchased from SIA ITERA Latvija 16.05%, and from the German energy holding company Uniper Ruhrgas International GmbH 18.31% of the natural gas transmission and storage system operator JSC Conexus Baltic Grid (Conexus) shares for the total value of 57.4 million euros.

Purchase of Conexus shares is an economically beneficial deal and it will in no way affect power energy transmission tariffs. For the purchase of shares AST was issued a loan from the State Treasury. It can be expected that this year the state will implement investment in AST equity in this amount, thus providing the loan. An increase in AST equity is planned in the budget of 2018. It is planned to cover the loan interest from dividends received by Conexus.

The most important objectives of purchasing Conexus shares are the formation of a regional natural gas market, further integration of Latvian energy markets in the European Union and improvement of the safety and competitiveness of the Latvian power supply.

The model, when the operator of a power energy transmission system is related to the operator of a natural gas transmission system, can also be observed in other Baltic states. In Estonia the state owned company Elering serves the operator functions of both power energy and natural gas transmission systems. But in Lithuania both the operation of the power energy system Litgrid, as well as operation of the natural gas transmission system Amber Gird is managed by the state owned capital company EPSO-G.

Unaudited report of 2017 (in latvian) can be found here.