Baltic countries will disconnect from electricity system they share with Russia and Belarus on February 8, 2025 - Estonian authorities

TALLINN. June 11 (Interfax) - The Baltic countries will disconnect their electrical systems from the unified system with Russia and Belarus on February 8, 2025, and they will be connected to the European power grid as of February 9.

"The desynchronization process, which has lasted for about 20 years, will end after the electricity system operators of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania announce in Russia and Belarus that they will no longer continue to operate in a joint synchronous space from the new annual period starting on February 8," Estonia's Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Jaanus Uiga told reporters on Tuesday.

The Baltic countries will be connected to the continental European electricity grid through the Lithuanian-Polish connection as of the next day, February 9.

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are the last EU member states that have not yet joined the continental European network.

Currently, all three Baltic countries are part of BRELL (the Belarus-Russia-Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania electric ring), whose frequency is maintained by the Russian system operator.

The prime ministers of the Baltic countries agreed to accelerate the desynchronization of the states' electricity systems from the power systems of Russia and Belarus and synchronize them with the power system of Central Europe in May, 2023.

The Baltic countries are expected to officially announce their withdrawal from BRELL in August 2024, and synchronization with the continental European energy system will occur in February 2025. Previously, synchronization was planned for the end of 2025.

The cost of the entire project is 1.6 billion euro. Three quarters of the costs are covered by the European Union budget.