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A solar park developed by European Energy in Meiluškiai, Anykščiai district, has joined the electricity balancing market organised by the Lithuanian electricity TSO Litgrid and submitted its first bids.
The participant is the first solar park in the country, contributing to ensuring the balance of electricity consumption and production in the Lithuanian electricity system.
The Meiluškės solar park is developed by European Energy, and balancing services are provided by Centrica Energy.
The solar park has successfully completed prequalification tests and is already providing manual frequency restoration reserve (mFRR) balancing services for reducing electricity production with a scope of 34MW.
Synchronisation and balancing services
Lithuania’s minister of Energy, Žygimantas Vaičiūnas, cited in a release the synchronisation of the country’s network with the continental European networks.
Vaičiūnas said that, with the synchronisation’s successful implementation, the development of a competitive and efficient balancing market is one of the most important goals.
“As Lithuania seeks to generate all the necessary electricity from renewable resources, the need for balancing services is growing. The connection of the first solar park to this market is significant in ensuring the balance of electricity production and consumption in Lithuania.
“We encourage renewable energy developers to participate more actively in the balancing market, as this is undoubtedly a win-win for both renewable energy project developers due to additional income and consumers due to stabilised balancing costs.”
According to Karolis Tuinyla, asset manager at European Energy Lithuania, although the company operates solar and wind farms across twelve countries, Meiluškės is the first in their portfolio to start providing frequency assurance services.
Said Tuinyla: “This is a significant step not only for us, but also for the entire market.
“It is also important to mention the contribution of Litgrid – their proactive approach in implementing the MARI platform significantly contributed to this achievement. Since this is a common market with the Baltic countries, it is especially pleasing to see that Lithuania is leading here in terms of systematic services provided.”
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Litgrid balancing participation
Over the past year, the Baltic TSOs Litgrid, Augstsprieguma tīkls and Elering have joined common European balancing exchange platforms.
In October 2024, they joined the manual frequency restoration reserve service platform, MARI, and in March-April 2025, they joined the automatic frequency restoration reserve service platform, PICASSO, following their synchronisation with the continental European grid.
According to Litgrid, participation in the European balancing market has opened up new opportunities for electricity producers and large consumers in the Baltic States to provide balancing services.
Litgrid currently has balancing service agreements with 21 market participants. Some of them are already providing balancing services, while others are carrying out preparatory work.
According to the TSO, balancing services can be provided using a variety of technologies, including energy storage batteries, solar and wind power plants, as well as flexible consumption.
Participants in the balancing energy market must be able to offer to immediately reduce or increase their generation or consumption capacity so that electricity TSOs ensure a constant balance between generation and consumption.
Said Donatas Matelionis, head of the System Management Department at Litgrid: “We are continuing to develop the energy balancing market and are taking care of the connection of new participants.”
Matelionis explained that, due to the increasing tech capabilities of balancing services, more sources of renewable energy will be able to come integrate into the energy network, reducing balancing costs.
Said Matelionis: “All wind and solar power plants connected to the transmission network have the technical capabilities to provide balancing services; for this it is necessary to connect the power plant control systems with the balancing market information systems. We are pleased with the first solar park in the balancing market and invite other manufacturers to join.”
Kristian Gjerløv-Juel, vice president of Renewable Energy Trading and Optimization at Centrica Energy, called the milestone for the balancing market a testament to how renewable energy and advanced optimisation tools can collaborate.
Said Gjerløv-Juel: “By enabling solar power plants like Meiluškės Parkas to actively contribute to grid stability, we are not only integrating sustainable energy, but also shaping a model for flexible, decentralised systems across Europe, which is important for building a resilient energy system.”
