Three former Soviet republics, now Baltic states, officially disconnect from russian power grid

Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia successfully disconnected their power grids from the russian-controlled frequency zone on Saturday, February 8.

The power grids of the three Baltic states are now operating in isolation, ERR reports.

The shutdown process began at around 6 a.m. local time with the shutdown of power lines between Lithuania and the russian Kaliningrad.

Then the lines between Lithuania and Belarus and between Latvia and russia were shut down.

The final stage was the shutdown of high-voltage lines between Estonia and russia on the border in Narva, state-owned company Elering reported.

According to Elering spokesman Ain Kester, Estonia disconnected from the russian power grid at 9:09 a.m. local time.

"The lines between Lithuania and the Kaliningrad region were disconnected at around 6:40, the lines between Lithuania and Belarus at 7:30, Latvia disconnected from russia at 8:00, and our lines were disconnected for around 9 hours. Now everything seems to be in order, and there is nothing to worry about," he told ERR radio news.

The disconnection of the Baltic countries from the russian power system did not affect consumers - the system continues to operate stably, Elering assured.

Synchronization with the continental European power system is scheduled for the second half of Sunday, February 9. Before that, the power system operators of Estonia (Elering), Latvia (AST) and Lithuania (Litgrid) will conduct tests of autonomous operation.

During this period, the Baltic power system will operate without connection to other frequency zones, and electricity consumption will be provided by local power plants, as well as the Estonia-Finland and Lithuania-Sweden interconnections.

According to the authorities of the three Baltic states, synchronization with the European power system will provide Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with independent, stable and reliable frequency control in their power grids, and will also increase the energy security of the region. The Continental European Frequency Zone covers 26 countries and over 400 million electricity consumers.

This also means the end of the so-called BRELL electricity ring, which until now included Belarus, russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The synchronization process of the Baltic countries is carried out in cooperation with the European Union and the association of European transmission operators for electricity ENTSO-E.

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