Baltic States join European power grid cutting Russian ties

The Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania cut ties with Russia’s and Belarus’s electricity systems in a long-planned move accelerated by the Ukraine war. The three countries integrated into the EU internal energy market by joining the European continental network via Poland.

The Baltic states successfully connected to the European continental electricity grid after fully disconnecting from Russian and Belarussian networks. This move, which has a geopolitical and symbolic significance, allows them to operate their own energy systems.

On February 9, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania started the successful synchronisation process with the European frequency area, marking their full integration into the EU internal energy market.

The synchronisation of the Baltics into the EU’s electricity grid is a flagship project which has been supported by the European Commission with political, technical and financial backing over the past 15 years.

This includes over €1.23bn in grants from the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility, covering 75% of the investment costs, as well as further investments financed under the Recovery and Resilience Facility in Latvia and Lithuania to strengthen electricity infrastructure.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “Today history is being made: the Baltic States are switching on energy independence. The last electricity grids in Europe still linked to Russia are now fully integrated into Europe’s internal energy market, with the support of over 1 billion euros of European funding over the years. The last remaining electricity lines with Russia and Belarus will now be dismantled.”

Pointing to a recent spate of suspected sabotage incidents involving electricity cables and pipelines in the Baltic Sea, she said “Russia targets European infrastructure testing our defences.”

“These chains of power lines, linking the Baltic states to hostile neighbours will be a thing of the past. This is freedom. Freedom from threats and blackmail,” she added.

Baltic Sea nations are on high alert for acts of sabotage after a string of outages of power cables since Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia has denied any involvement.

Planned for more than 15 years, the switch away from Russian networks is designed to integrate the three nations more closely with the EU and to boost the region’s energy security.

The European Coordinator for the Baltic Synchronisation projects, Catharina Sikow-Magny will continue to work closely with the EU Member States in the Baltic region to implement the remaining aspects of this project.

Further work includes the construction of the 700 MW Harmony Link Interconnector between Lithuania and Poland, which is scheduled for completion in 2030.