Baltic states in ‘final phase of work’ to desynchronise electricity grids from Moscow

In the context of the war in Ukraine, the three Baltic states want to accelerate the desynchronisation of their electricity grids from Russia and Belarus and complete it by February 2025 at the latest.

Twenty years after Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania joined the EU, their electricity grids remain synchronised with Russian and Belarusian grids, which means that electricity in all the countries has the matching frequency and can readily flow across borders.

The Baltic states have long planned to instead synchronise their power systems with the EU’s grid, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 made this an even more pressing issue.

“Grids are the heart of our energy system, and have big geopolitical and strategic importance. This has been underlined by Russia’s devastating attacks against Ukraine’s energy sector,” the Estonian EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson told Euractiv.

Simson also said that “Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania will become fully integrated into the EU’s internal electricity market and gain full control of their electricity networks. This will increase the energy security of the whole region”.

The three Baltic countries agreed to set “early 2025” as the deadline for synchronisation with Europe’s continental grid.

The European Union has invested more than €1.2 billion in subsidies for the project.

“Synchronisation is the most monumental energy independence project in the Baltic States and it is in its final phase,” the Latvian electricity transmission system operator, JSC ‘Augstsprieguma tīkls’ (AST) told Euractiv.

Baltic isolation

The Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian electricity systems were integrated into the IPS/UPS transmission network during the Soviet occupation. This network, which is largely managed by Moscow, supplies 280 million customers with electricity, mainly in the former USSR countries and Central Asia.

In 2007, the then prime ministers of the three Baltic states agreed a strategic objective of joining the European continental grid. On 20 June 2019, these three countries and the European Commission signed a political roadmap to achieve synchronisation.

Riga, Tallinn, and Vilnius have put an end to their electrical isolation by building new interconnecting transmission wires with Finland, Poland, and Sweden. However, their electricity networks remain synchronised with the Russian and Belarusian systems (commonly known as the ‘BRELL ring’).

In contrast, the EU countries of Central and Eastern Europe – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, which had all also been part of the Soviet bloc until 1991 – already synchronised their systems with the continental European grid (CEN) between 1995 and 2004.

Synchronisation by 2025

Synchronisation with the EU grid is planned via the existing transmission line between Lithuania and Poland (LitPol Link) and a future submarine cable between the two countries. Technical equipment must also be deployed, to guarantee the overall stability and security of the electricity system.

Latvian electricity transmission network operator AST told Euractiv the project is ‘in the final phase of work’, with the installation this month of three ‘synchronous condensers’ in each of the Baltic countries and the reconstruction by June of the two interconnections between Latvia and Estonia.

In July 2022 Lithuania’s Vice-Minister of Energy Albinas Zananavičius announced the country’s intention to speed up the transition process and leave the BRELL transmission system before 2025.

Vilnius successfully conducted an isolated operation test of the country’s electricity system in April 2023, proving they are capable of joining the synchronous network of continental Europe (UCTE) as early as this year.

However, Estonia and Latvia require more time, and Lithuanian authorities have agreed to wait until all three countries are ready before achieving full synchronisation with the European grid.

In March 2022, the Ukrainian and Moldovan grids were synchronised with the European power system. While the ’emergency synchronisation’ could be completed rapidly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the move was based on preparatory technical work which began in 2017.

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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