The move will also create a market for frequency maintenance, while contingency plans will be put in place for Estonia to have a self-sufficient grid in the event of downtime on all cables connecting it to other friendly nations.

Kalle Kilk, head of grid distributor Elering, conceded that Estonia had in the past received frequency maintenance services from Russia at a very low cost, while from next year this will no longer be the case.

Meanwhile Jaanus Uiga, deputy secretary general at the Ministry of Climate said: "We will start maintaining the frequency ourselves, which means we will have a separate frequency market."

"As a result, Elering recently announced a public procurement to generate capacities for this purpose. This is positive for our producers, as, ultimately, we need to become self-sufficient," Uiga went on.

"Now, the final work to the control systems need to be completed, but ENTSO-E, the umbrella organization of Europe's transmission system operators, has independently assessed the Baltic states' preparedness, and has confirmed that we are prepared to take this step, while they are ready to accept us," Uiga went on.

Kalle Kilk said: "But it's not just down to power stations; electricity consumers can also help balance the system's production and consumption by adjusting their usage. "

"Everyone involved can earn from this service. For example, if I, as a consumer, agree to have my consumption switched off at a specific moment, I will be compensated for that," he went on.

Frequency maintainers will earn revenue from providing this service.

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania's grid systems operators informed Russia six months in advance of their decisions to cease to be synchronized with the Russian and Belarusian grid.

This grid system was established in the Soviet era, and though all three countries had long planned to decouple and connect to the Continental European electricity system, the invasion of Ukraine from 2022 gave this a greater sense of urgency.

The decoupling is due to take place next February and will require Estonia to maintain its own electricity frequency thereafter.

This in turn will result in the creation of a frequency market, while the cost of maintaining frequency will be borne by consumers and will lead to a 2-3 percent rise in electricity prices.

While an additional electricity cable between Lithuania and Poland, needed for electricity trade between those two countries plus Latvia and Estonia, this will not be ready by next February.

"Initially, until this new connection is ready, we will have to reduce trade slightly, but the reliability will be ensured by the existing line," Kilk said.

"The current Lit-Pol Link connection is entirely sufficient; it is very powerful. The only issue is that there is just the one, and we must always be prepared for the possibility of it getting disconnected, in which case the three Baltic states will need to manage independently, as an isolated grid," he added.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania's electricity transmission system operators (TSOs) on Tuesday sent a notice of their intention to decouple from the Russia-controlled BRELL electricity system in February 2025

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!