Motivation
The nuclear power plant is foreseen to secure power supply for the Kaliningrad Oblast and to replace natural gas-based power generation. It has been mentioned that the Kaliningrad Oblast needs the project "because for the time being it imports energy from NATO countries." The excess electricity was planned to be exported into the EU market. According to Sergey Boyarkin, deputy general director of Rosenergoatom, the first reactor would be sufficient for Kaliningrad Oblast's needs, while electricity produced by the second reactor would be exported when not filling gaps in generation caused by refuelling and downtime. Lithuania, Poland and Germany were named as potential export markets.
Sergey Boyarkin has said that the shutdown of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant combined with Polish plans to scrap coal-fired generation in compliance with environmental regulation means that the Baltic region faces an energy crisis by 2015. He also has said that Kaliningrad Oblast will be isolated from electricity supplies from Russia if the Baltic states de-synchronize themselves from the Russian electricity grid and join the synchronous grid of Continental Europe (ENTSO-E grid). He also mentioned technical complications and unreliability in electricity transfer from Smolensk Nuclear Power Plant, the main supplier of Kaliningrad Oblast, via Belarus and Lithuania.
On the other hand, the project has been seen as a counter-project to the Visaginas nuclear power plant project in Lithuania. Russia invited Lithuania to participate in the project, instead of building the nuclear power plant in Lithuania.
Read more about this topic: Kaliningrad Nuclear Power Plant
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