Estonia to face higher electricity prices after Russian grid decoupling

After its impending decoupling from the Russian electricity grid system, Estonia will need to manage the frequency of its own grid.
This will lead to a significant increase in electricity prices, but will also ensure greater control over the network.
The desynchronization is due to take place in February next year.
Daily Postimees has reported (link in Estonian) that while the current rate for production and consumption comes to four cents per megawatt-hour, Elering, Estonia's grid system operator, has proposed that following the desynchronization, the rate should be €5.31 per MWh for both producers and consumers (0.53 cents per kWh).
A substantial portion of this rate is put down to costs of procuring frequency reserves, VAT added to the total.
For an individual with a monthly energy consumption of 250 kWh (equivalent to 3 MWh per year), this rate increase would result in an additional monthly cost of €15.91, plus VAT.
Elering is not required to coordinate this price with the Competition Authority (Konkurentsiamet), although the authority will reportedly be reviewing how reasonable the tariff is, if necessary.
This tariff will fluctuate on the emerging frequency reserves market in accordance with demand and supply.
The actual price will only be clear when the market opens in February, under the observation of the Competition Authority, electricity producers, consumers, and Elering itself.
As a measure to avoid any party from incurring unreasonable costs, the tariff will be reviewed every two months.
Estonia, along with Latvia and Lithuania, had previously been due to o disconnect from the BRELL grid, which connects them with the Russian and Belarusian grids, and synchronize with the continental European grid, by the end of 2025. However, they now aim to complete this process by February 2025.
These three countries are the last EU member states still synchronized with the Russian electricity grid.
Desynchronization will grant them full control over their own power grids.
The synchronous grid of Continental Europe (also known as Continental Synchronous Area; formerly known as the UCTE grid) is the largest synchronous electrical grid by connected power in the world and is interconnected as a single phase-locked 50 Hz mains frequency electricity grid.
The Baltic states' synchronization with the UCTE is being managed by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) and means they will and leave the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) IPS/UPS transmission system managed by the Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (BRELL) agreement. The project is expected to be completed by February 2025.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
Source: Postimees