Supreme Court Overturns Ruling in Dispute Over 400-Metre Power Line in Ogre

The Senate of Latvia's Supreme Court has overturned an Administrative Regional Court ruling in a dispute between the power producer Elektro bizness and the Public Utilities Commission (SPRK), the regulator overseeing energy and other regulated sectors. The Senate concluded that the regulator read the rules on direct lines too narrowly when it denied the company permission to build a power line of roughly 400 metres in Ogre. The case goes back for a new hearing, and the Senate's ruling cannot be appealed.

The company's plan

Elektro bizness generates electricity at its own cogeneration plant in Ogre. The plant is linked to a 7.6-kilometre power line owned by the company, which supplies six industrial customers without going through the network of the distribution operator Sadales tīkls.

In 2020 the company asked SPRK for permission to build a line of about 400 metres connecting its existing line with a facility of Ogres komunikācijas, an agency of the Ogre municipality, so that electricity from the plant could be delivered to it directly. In June 2021 SPRK refused, arguing among other things that the new line would join the customer to the existing line rather than directly to the plant. The Administrative Regional Court upheld the refusal on 8 July 2022.

The Senate's findings

The Senate held that the Electricity Market Law and SPRK rules define a direct line incompletely, in a way that does not match the European Union directive. The decisive test is whether a producer or supplier serves a customer without using the distribution network. It therefore does not matter that the new line would connect to the existing line rather than the plant: using both lines, the company could supply the customer without Sadales tīkls, so the line qualifies as a direct line.

The decision draws on the 17 September judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the joined cases Elektro bizness and Jelgavas autobusu parks. The Senate had referred a preliminary question to that court in October 2024.

Lawyer's view

The company's lawyer, Kristiāna Strenga, said a direct line is an additional supply route from producer to consumer that bypasses the public distribution network. In her view, together with local generation it can help maintain supply during public grid outages. She also stressed that trust in institutions suffers when a business must spend five years in court over an option provided by law.

According to Firmas.lv, Elektro bizness had turnover of 796,413 euros and a profit of 228,006 euros in 2025. It was registered in 2003 and is owned by Plat Form Co., registered in Japan.