In April 2013, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Regulation (EU) No 347/2013 on guidelines for trans-European energy infrastructure and repealing Decision No 1364/2006/EC and amending Regulations (EC) No 713/2009, (EC) No 714/2009 and (EC) No 715/2009 (Infrastructure Regulation). In accordance to the procedure laid down in the Infrastructure Regulation, infrastructure development projects are evaluated and identified for inclusion in the European Union’s (EU) list of projects of common interest (PCIs). PCIs are important EU energy projects, especially transnational interconnection projects with a significant cross-border impact and their contribution to the integration of energy markets, security of supply, competition and sustainability.
PCIs are projects for the public interest and by connecting national energy systems they should foster achievement of EU energy and climate policy goals. The inclusion of a project on the PCIs list means that the project can benefit from:
- accelerated permit granting processes;
- the assessment of cost-sharing (for example, if two countries in the project are involved);
- opportunity to qualify for the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF regulation) instrument funds.
The list of PCIs is approved every two years by a Commission delegated regulation.
Three PCIs lists have been approved by the delegated regulation of the Commission – the first list in 2013, the second list in 2015, the third list in 2017 and the fourth list in 2019.
The fourth list of PCIs includes the following projects related to the Latvian energy infrastructure:
| No | Gas supply |
| 1. | Enhancement of Inčukalns underground gas storage CEF financial support = EUR 150,000 study |
| 2. | Enhancement of Latvia — Lithuania interconnection CEF financial support = EUR 175,000 study |
| 3. | Poland-Lithuania interconnection - “GIPL” CEF financial support = EUR 10,595,988 (50%) study + CEF financial support = EUR 295,386,600 (60%) construction works |
The Latvian Regulator has prepared informative material on the activities to evaluate investments in electricity and gas infrastructure projects.
In accordance with the tasks of Infrastructure Regulation, the Regulator has taken the following decisions (in Latvian):
- on April 30, 2014 Regulator took its Decision No.97 on allocation of investment costs for the project of common interest “Capacity enhancement of Klaipeda-Kiemenai pipeline in Lithuania”;
- on October 4, 2018 Regulator took its Decision No.113 on allocation of investment costs for the project of common interest "Enhancement of Inčukalns Underground Gas Storage";
- on May 30, 2019 Regulator took its Decision No.101 on allocation of investment costs for the project of common interest in natural gas sector "Enhancement of Latvia-Lithuania interconnection".