Poland faces risk of building its part of Harmony Link at a price tag largely higher than initial estimates, as the only bid from Hitachi and Budimex consortium exceeds the budget by nearly 150%, Wysokienapiecie.pl website warns.
Harmony Link between the Lithuanian and Polish electricity systems will enable electricity trade once Baltic States synchronise their network with the European grid. The 330 km long 700 MW submarine cable together with onshore high-voltage cable (HVDC) will connect the Zarnoviec substation in Poland with the Darbėnai substation in Lithuania. Construction of the interconnector is now expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2028, according to the Harmony Link website, versus 2025 planned earlier.
In February, Polish grid operator PSE opened the offers filed in tender for the Polish part of the project and saw only one offer submitted by a consortium of Hitachi Energy Sweden, Hitachi Energy Poland and Polish contractor Budimex, Wysokienapiecie.pl wrote on February 23. “The gross value of the offer stands at 878.6 mln euro in total….., while the budget of the ordering party is gross 368.4 mln euro, “ it added.
The website also reminded that the value of the investment in Harmony Link had been estimated for 680 mln euro, with 493 mln euro coming from the Connecting Europe Facility. “Lithuania and Poland will cover 100% costs of the onshore cable running through their respective territories…, while costs of the submarine cable are to be divided,” Wysokienapiecie.pl went on saying.
Now, according to the website, PSE is analyzing the offer of Hitachi and Budimex, while the Lithuanian operator Litgrid is expected to decide on the contractor of their part of the project in Spring.
