Surprised by ESO’s request to pay for half of the transformer: the company says that everything is in accordance with the law

Detalita, a vehicle parts trading company operating on Vilnius Lentvarios Street, decided to reorganize the warehouse, and the vacated space for a car service. It was decided to create a service for this purpose by establishing a new company.

Head of Detalitas Gytautas Mackevičius Delphi says that the company wanted the service to have not only a new company, but also a separate electricity accounting. There is an electrical substation in Detalita’s yard, from which the future service station is only 8 meters away, so the company did not expect large costs, but everything turned out differently.

“We applied to ESO and received an answer that we have to pay 50 percent. reaching the capacity development fee, ie 3400 euros. They claim that the substation, which could easily accommodate a megawatt transformer, only has a 64kW unit and we have to pay half the cost to replace it. A transformer of such power hangs on poles in rural areas”, complains G. Mackevičius.

He is convinced that the company ESO should invest in replacing the transformer itself, since it also owns the substation itself

“In my understanding, monopolists rob people without scruples and lie without any responsibility. I thought that ESO was a state-owned company that invests in the development and renovation of networks. And it turned out that their main goal is profit and dividends for shareholders”, laments the head of Detalitas.

At that time, ESO’s media representative was Rasa Juodkienė Delphi claims that the current power transformers and other elements of distribution networks in the mentioned power substation are equipped to meet the needs of existing consumers. And the law stipulates that if reconstruction is necessary, half of its cost must be covered by consumers.

“As stipulated by the Energy Law, the customer must cover 50% of the cost. reconstruction costs. The other part is covered by ESO”, emphasizes R. Juodkienė.

She notes that if Detalita were to share the power it now has with the newly established company, then there would be no additional load on the network and no reconstruction would be needed.

In the letter submitted to Detalitai, ESO stated that another facility managed by the company is already connected to the power grid line – a 35 kW solar power plant. Therefore, there are no possibilities to connect another 35 kW permitted power facility. This is the kind of power Detalita requested for the future car service.

According to ESO, in order to connect a new object to the network, it is necessary to change the existing 80 A fuse in the substation to 125 A, and the existing transformer to a larger one.

“We regret that we cannot provide the desired power service under other conditions. The connection fee could only be lower if a lower one was selected. The object’s desired permissible power for use”, stated the ESO.

Delphi previously wrote that, according to ESO, a small part of users must pay for network reconstruction.

Last year, the head of ESO, Renaldas Radvila, in the Energy and Sustainable Development Commission of the Seimas, said that, for example, in 2022 the company issued conditions for connecting to the network for 40,000 new users, of which only 2.8 percent received conditions with the need to perform reconstruction, and at the same time to pay 50 percent. its costs.

Last year, the average price of such a reconstruction was about 12.4 thousand. euros.

Only 4.6 percent decided to contribute to the development of network capacity. ESO customers who received connection conditions with the need for reconstruction. The average amount paid by them is 2.8 thousand. euros.