Despite the push from Vilnius to speed up the decoupling from the Russian-controlled power grid, the Baltic States will not be able to leave the network next year and ahead of schedule.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are part of the Soviet-era BRELL network that also includes Belarus and is controlled by Moscow. The three Baltic countries planned to disconnect together from the grid in 2025, but Vilnius had been seeking to push the date forward following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.
However, Estonia says it will only be able to transform its electricity grid to allow a switch away from BRELL in 2025, according to Rokas Masiulis, CEO of Litgrid, Lithuania’s power transmission system operator. He previously alleged that Estonia’s operator was doing everything to postpone the move.
“As the saying goes, hope is the last thing to die, but the way things are going, we are still dependent on Estonia. So if they don’t change their position, unfortunately, it will be according to their schedule, not ours, because we cannot leave the BRELL system alone,” he said. (LRT/Business World Magazine)