The electricity transmission system operators (TSO) of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have formally notified Russia and Belarus of their plans to decouple from a Moscow-controlled electricity system, citing the expected benefits of greater reliability and energy security.
The Baltic countries stopped buying electricity from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. The move to delink from the Russian grid and instead connect to the main continental European energy network amounts to an even more decisive move to cut ties.
The three TSOs—Elering (Estonia), AST (Latvia), and Litgrid (Lithuania)—stated that the BRELL agreement won’t be renewed upon its expiration on Feb. 7, 2025. After that, the Baltic states will connect to the Continental Europe Synchronous Area, which supplies more than 400 million customers in 24 countries and is the world’s largest synchronous electrical grid.
The Baltic electricity systems believe that operating under common European rules will deliver a series of benefits, including operational transparency and the flexibility needed to incorporate renewable energy sources in overall electricity generation.
“Synchronisation with Continental Europe Synchronous Area will allow for independent, stable and reliable frequency control of the Baltic states electricity grids and will increase energy security in the region,” the three TSOs said in the statement.
In 2019, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland agreed with European Union authorities to coordinate on connecting the three Baltic nations to the European grid by the end of 2025. However, the outbreak of the war in Ukraine speeded up that timeline.
Lithuania pushed for an earlier energy exit, citing Moscow’s unreliability and aggression in Ukraine, while Estonia opposed the quicker cutoff to avoid potential blackouts from a hasty switchover.
Even though the transition isn’t set to take place until February 2025, the electrical systems of the three Baltic states are already prepared for emergency synchronization with the European grid at any moment, if needed, according to Kalle Kilk, chairman of Elering’s board of directors.
“In Estonia, during the last five years, most of the objects of the electricity network which ensure the stability and reliability of the electricity system, including three synchronous condensers, have been completed,” he said in a statement.
“The last of the major constructions is the reconstruction of the Viru-Tsirguliina high-voltage power line, which is 90 percent complete and will be fully operational again by winter.”
The Russian Ministry of Energy didn’t respond by publication time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment on the announcement.
