Baltic States Continue Accelerated Effort to Decouple From Russian Power System

Electric power line towers of the Kurzeme Circle (Kurzemes Loks) are pictured on June 18, 2020, in Tukums, near Riga, Latvia. Latvia completed a new high-voltage power line to Estonia on Dec. 21, 2020, as aprt of its efforts to align electricity grids in the Baltic states with European Union neighbors instead of Russia. Gints Ivuskans/AFP via Getty Images

Baltic states are continuing with efforts to disconnect their electricity networks from Russia and synchronize them with the continental European power system amid the Russia–Ukraine conflict.

In July 2023, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania agreed to accelerate their efforts to synchronize their power grids with continental Europe via Poland by February 2025, according to a statement by Lithuania’s Ministry of Climate and Energy. An initial deadline to finalize the transition had been set for the end of 2025.

The Baltic states initially came to an agreement in 2018 with the European Union to join the continental European electricity network, according to a European Commission statement. The agreement was reinforced in 2019.

The three countries had been connected to the Soviet electricity infrastructure when they were part of the Soviet Union.

In 1999, eight years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Latvia, and Estonia, and in 2001, Lithuania signed the BRELL agreement with Russia and Belarus to remain in the synchronous electricity grid with the Russian and Belarusian networks, according to the Poland-based Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW).

For a number of years, the power grids of the Baltic states were an element of the systems of Russia and Belarus and have had no trans-border connections to either the Nordic countries or continental Europe via Poland, the OSW said.

This put Russia in a position of strength, thus allowing it to use its control over the power grid of the Baltic states as a tool of coercion, according to the Poland-based Warsaw Institute.

“For this reason, in the previous years, the Baltics already ended the Russian gas monopoly,” the Warsaw Institute said.

The project to synchronize their electricity networks with continental Europe will be a great stride for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania toward achieving energy independence, the think tank stated.

During a decade starting in 2007, three asynchronous links via the undersea cable connecting the Baltics to some other EU member countries were built: Estlink 1 and Estlink 2 from Estonia to Finland, NordBalt from Lithuania to Sweden, and LitPol Link from Lithuania to Poland, the OSW said.

Transition

To meet the accelerated deadline, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania must jointly notify BRELL counterparts in August about the termination of the BRELL agreement, the statement said.

Following the Baltics’ commitment to accelerate the decoupling of their energy networks from Russia, three electricity grid operators signed an agreement to make the Baltic networks technically ready for synchronization by February 2025, according to Nasdaq.

Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian electricity transmission system operators Elering, Augstsprieguma tīkls (AST), and Litgrid will be ready to safely disconnect from the Russian-controlled system and synchronize with continental Europe, Nasdaq reported.

The EU has granted 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) to support the project, it said in a statement.

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have been EU member states since 2004.

According to the Latvian power grid operator AST, the initiative will include upgrading the existing Lithuania–Poland link (LitPol Link) and construction of a new subsea cable between Lithuania and Poland.

“The BRELL agreement is the last element binding the Baltic states’ energy systems to the post-Soviet space,” OSW said in 2019.

LitPol Link HVDC back-to-back converter station and power line to Poland LitPol Link in Alytus, Lithuania, on Nov. 19, 2015. Petras Malukas/AFP via Getty Images

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko warned in November last year that disconnecting from the BRELL system that connected the Baltics to the Soviet-built energy network would affect electricity costs for Baltic states, TASS, a Russian state-controlled news agency, reported.

After the complete exit from the BRELL agreement, electricity prices will be determined at the Swedish exchange, not by a long-term contract for energy supplies from Russia, Mr. Grushko said.

Impact

The Baltic power grids have already been part of the European power market, and the Baltics don’t trade electricity with Russia and Belarus, a spokesperson from Estonian power grid operator Elering told The Epoch Times via email.

Therefore, the market prices of electricity aren’t currently influenced by Russia or Belarus, according to Elering.

Moreover, the synchronization with Europe will create new opportunities for Baltic electricity transmission operators by giving them access to new electricity supply markets, the spokesperson said.

On the one hand, the operators can tap into electricity supplies in the new markets; on the other hand, they can trade their reserves on the new markets, the spokesperson said.

The new market and EU climate policies could potentially affect the electricity price, the spokesperson said, but the desynchronization initiative itself won’t affect the electricity cost as it has been “in large part financed by the EU.”

Most of these investments should have been done regardless of the transition, Elering stated.

“The power system [will] operate during the synchronization process as normally as possible,” the spokesperson said. “Consumers [will not] even notice the change.”

The spokesperson said that the power grids of the Baltic states will be synchronized with those of continental Europe by February 2025. To prevent any potential impact from disconnecting from the Russian grid, the three countries have already agreed to “a set of measures.”

“There is always a slight operational risk, but an action plan has been prepared also for the Baltic States emergency synchronization with continental Europe,” Elering stated.

“Contingency measures have been developed that will be enabled in the event of unforeseen internal or external interference.”