The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania on Sunday completed their dramatic and potentially risky switch from Russia’s gas-fuelled power grid to the European Union’s system, an end to ties that date back to the era of the Soviet Union.
The three countries, each of which was an unwilling member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), or the Soviet Union, until its dissolution in 1991, disconnected on Saturday from the IPS/UPS joint transmission network.
Workers literally cut their cross-border high-voltage transmission lines located in Vilaka, in eastern Latvia, approximately 100 metres from the border with Russia, leaving the countries isolated for a short time before the connection to the EU was complete.
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Pieces of chopped wire were handed out to bystanders as keepsakes of the occasion, in similar fashion to piece of the Berlin Wall when that was pulled down in the 1980s.
Local grid operators then undertook frequency management trials to test the Baltic grid’s stability
“The synchronization of the Baltic countries’ electricity systems with continental Europe is one of the most ambitious energy projects in our region,” said Žygimantas Vaičiūnas, the Lithuanian energy minister.
“This is a regional megaproject, the scale of which is primarily determined by dozens of different projects in four countries. The test of isolated operation is another solid step towards ensuring our path to energy independence.
“For many decades, we have operated synchronously with the Russian system, we have been dependent on its frequency control and sensitive to possible disruptions. Now we are entering a new stage – one in which we will create a bright, strong, safe and energy-free future.”
Ukraine disconnected from the main Russia grid in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of the country. It immediately completed an emergency synchronisation with the European grid in March of 2022.
This latest move by Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, has been debated for years, although discussions unsurprisingly accelerated in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The three countries had already halted the purchase of power from Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine but were nevertheless forced to rely on the Russian grid to control frequencies and stabilise their networks.
“These chains of power lines linking you to hostile neighbours will be a thing of the past,” said Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President, who hailed the move as a sign of a new era of freedom for the region.
“This is freedom, freedom from threats, freedom from blackmail,” she continued, adding that the wider European continent is also in the process of extricating itself from reliance on Russian natural gas.
Even as the countries further severed ties with Russia, however, the region remains on high alert after power cable, telecom links, and gas pipeline outages between the Baltic countries and Sweden or Finland believed to have been caused by ships dragging anchors along the seabed.
While Russia has denied any involvement in these actions, concerns remain of potential further sabotage which could drive power prices in the Baltics to record highs.
The three Baltic nations have each recorded recent renewable energy milestones, come at a time that further highlights not only the region’s further independence from Russian influence but also increasing national generation independence.
Lithuania, for example, as part of its effort to integrate 12GW of onshore renewables into its national grid, saw its fleet of wind turbines produce 430GWh of power in January, accounting for half of the country’s total electricity production for the month, which itself accounted for 75 per cent of the country’s consumption.
In Estonia, 3,398GWh of electricity was produced from renewable energy sources in 2024, accounting for 63 per cent of the country’s total production.
Meanwhile, in Latvia, while official figures are harder to come by due to geo-blocking, clean energy sources are expected to account for approximately 62 per cent of the country’s electricity generation. This was demonstrated most recently in a post from the country’s grid operator AST which revealed that wind energy generated 38GWh in December.
