The governments in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said they had notified Russia and its ally Belarus that they will decouple from the Soviet-era power grid next February.
The move marks a major step in achieving energy independence from Moscow for the three staunch Ukraine supporters, which were once part of the Soviet Union but are now in the European Union and NATO.
The Baltic nations have had tense relations with Moscow following independence in 1991, and ties have further deteriorated since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. But despite independence, their power grids had remained connected with Russia and Belarus.
All three Baltic states have been part of the Belarus-Russia-Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania (BRELL) ring, whose frequency is maintained by the Russian system operator, meaning they still depend on Moscow to ensure a stable electricity flow.
In contrast, the EU countries of Central and Eastern Europe such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania – which formally had not been incorporated into the USSR– already synchronized their systems with the Continental European Network (CEN) between 1995 and 2004.
In 2018, the Baltic nations signed a deal with the European Commission and Poland that provided funding to upgrade their grid infrastructure to join the CEN by the end of 2025.
However, Russia’s war in Ukraine led the Baltics to speed up the project.
The three states agreed to use Lithuania’s existing electricity link with Poland, along with a new direct cable beneath the Baltic Sea.
Now, after decades of efforts to disengage, the three Baltics will disconnect from the Russian grid early February while synchronizing the frequency of their grids with that in continental Europe.
The project amounts to 1.6 billion euro, with three-quarters covered by the EU.
The three Baltic countries are currently connected to European partners through electricity lines with Poland, Sweden and Finland.
(mo)
Source: PAP, AFP