The three

Baltic states The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

(

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

, and

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

) undertook the

synchronization Synchronization is the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. For example, the Conductor (music), conductor of an orchestra keeps the orchestra synchronized or ''in time''. Systems that operate with all parts in synchrony are sa ...

of their

electric power transmission Electric power transmission is the bulk movement of electrical energy from a generating site, such as a power plant, to an electrical substation. The interconnected lines that facilitate this movement form a ''transmission network''. This is ...

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

with the

Continental Europe Synchronous Area The Continental Europe Synchronous Area (CESA), formerly known as the UCTE grid, is one of the largest synchronous electrical grids in the world, primarily operating in Europe. It is interconnected as a single phase-locked mains frequency ele ...

(CESA), a project known as Baltic Synchro. Managed by

ENTSO-E The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) is an association representing 40 electricity transmission system operators (TSOs) from 36 countries across Europe, thus extending beyond EU borders. It manages the ...

, this initiative aimed to disconnect from the

IPS/UPS The IPS/UPS (), also widely known as the Russian grid is a wide area synchronous transmission grid, the Russian Unified Power System (UPS; ) and the Integrated Power System (IPS; ) portion of the network being the national networks of Azerbaij ...

system, previously governed by the 2001 BRELL Agreement with

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. The project was successfully completed on 9 February 2025.

History

The electricity systems of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were technologically integrated into the

grid in the early 1960s, during the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States. In 2001, the BRELL Agreement was signed between Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania on the technical management of the synchronization of their power grids as part of the IPS/UPS power distribution system. Nevertheless, IPS/UPS is largely managed centrally from

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. In 2007, the three Baltic states applied to join ENTSO-E (then UCTE) and began technical feasibility studies on joining the European synchronous power network. The synchronization project allows the three Baltic states to regain full control of their electricity networks and strengthen their

energy security Energy security is the association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption (as opposed to household energy insecurity). Access to cheaper energy has become essential to the functioning of modern ...

. According to the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

, the synchronization of Baltic states is a political and financial priority and therefore it has allocated more than €1.2 billion towards the funding of the project. Some of the facilities include new powerlines, batteries, and nine

synchronous condenser In electrical engineering, a synchronous condenser (sometimes called a syncon, synchronous capacitor or synchronous compensator) is a DC-excited synchronous motor, whose shaft is not connected to anything but spins freely. Its purpose is not to c ...

Chronology

In 2007, the prime ministers of the three Baltic states confirmed their strategic objective to become part of the continental European network. In September 2018, an official application to expand the synchronous zone was submitted to

. On 27 May 2019, an agreement was signed for the connection of the Baltic states to the Continental Europe synchronous electric power network operation zone.

Proposals to speed up the process

The need for synchronization became more urgent after the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

in 2022. Lithuanian Prime Minister

Ingrida Šimonytė Ingrida Šimonytė (; born 15 November 1974) is a Lithuanian politician, public servant and economist who served as the 17th Prime Minister of Lithuania, prime minister of Lithuania from 2020 to 2024. She has been a Member of the Seimas for the A ...

announced that Lithuania was seeking to speed up the process of transition and leave the IPS/UPS transmission system before 2025 with the expected finalized plan made public by the end of 2023. On 22 April 2023, a

stress test Stress testing is a form of deliberately intense or thorough testing, used to determine the stability of a given system, critical infrastructure or entity. It involves testing beyond normal operational capacity, often to a breaking point, in orde ...

was scheduled in the Baltic states to test the infrastructure and operate for a day outside the

grid. Latvia and Estonia withdrew from testing, while Lithuania successfully conducted the test and concluded that the country was ready to join the synchronous grid of Continental Europe in 2024. Estonia and Latvia proposed the synchronization with the European grid be delayed to 2025 due to infrastructure not being ready. President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda continued to pressure both Estonia and Latvia to synchronize with continental Europe in 2024, without waiting until 2025. Eventually, the countries agreed to synchronize no later than February 2025.

Withdrawal from BRELL

On 16 July 2024, the three Baltic states, represented by their

transmission system operator File:Electricity grid simple- North America.svg, 380px, Simplified diagram of AC electricity grid from generation stations to consumers in North America rect 2 243 235 438 Power station rect 276 317 412 556 Transformer rect 412 121 781 400 Elect ...

s Elering (Estonia), AST (Latvia) and Litgrid (Lithuania), formally notified Russia and Belarus of their decision to withdraw from the BRELL Agreement. In

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, a clock began counting down on 1 November 2024. The agreement was set to legally expire on 7 February 2025 and the Baltic states were scheduled to technologically disconnect from IPS/UPS on 8 February 2025.

Synchronization

On Saturday 8 February 2025 at 9:09 (

UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. As standard time (year-round) Principal cities: Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Por ...

), the Baltic states permanently disconnected from IPS/UPS. For a day, they operated in isolated mode and conducted various frequency, voltage stability and system resilience tests. Following the disconnection,

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad,. known as Königsberg; ; . until 1946, is the largest city and administrative centre of Kaliningrad Oblast, an Enclave and exclave, exclave of Russia between Lithuania and Poland ( west of the bulk of Russia), located on the Prego ...

became a

power island Power Island (formerly Marion Island) is an island in Lake Michigan in the U.S. state of Michigan. Part of Grand Traverse County, Power Island is located in the west arm of Grand Traverse Bay, between the Leelanau Peninsula (west) and Old Missio ...

, disconnected from its surrounding states. During the tests in Lithuania, the

Elektrėnai Power Plant The Elektrėnai Power Plant or Elektrėnai Complex () is a gas- and fuel-oil-fired 1,055 MW electricity generating station near Elektrėnai, Lithuania, about west of the capital, Vilnius. It is operated by Ignitis gamyba AB, a subsidiary of I ...

briefly went offline unplanned, but soon reconnected. On Sunday 9 February 2025, at 14:05, the Baltic states successfully synchronized with the continental European electricity grid.

Connections

On 9 December 2015, Poland and Lithuania commissioned LitPol Link, which was the first direct connection between the Baltic states and the European grid. In 2018, another proposed link with Poland via the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

was announced, called Harmony Link. The total investment planned for the Harmony Link project is around €680 million, of which €493 million will come from the Connecting Europe Facility. The Baltic States also have connections with the Nordic electricity grid via the NordBalt and Estlink HVDC submarine power cable systems, although Estlink2 was not operating at the time of the grid switchover.

References

{{Portal bar, Energy, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania 2025 in economic history 2025 in international relations 2025 in Estonia February 2025 in Latvia 2025 in Lithuania February 2025 in Russia Economic history of Estonia Economic history of Latvia Economic history of Lithuania Economic history of Russia Electric power transmission in Estonia Electric power transmission in Latvia Electric power transmission in Lithuania Electric power in Russia Electric power in the European Union Events affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine Estonia–Latvia relations Estonia–Lithuania relations Estonia–Russia relations Latvia–Lithuania relations Latvia–Russia relations Lithuania–Russia relations February 2025 in Europe