07 Oct. 2021

The study analyses the Baltic States’ synchronization with Continental European Network(CEN), identifying Russian and Belarusian approaches towards the Baltic energy project and their potential hybrid activities. With the help of the European Commission, Poland and other regional partners, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia aim to synchronise their power grids with CEN by 2025, establishing important strategic implications for the Baltic Sea Region. The Baltic States will further solidify their infrastructural integration in the Euro-Atlantic space by synchronising with the European system. Such a development will end a bizarre geopolitical paradox – Russia’s management of the Baltic State’s power grids through a centralized dispatch of Integrated Power System/Unified Power System (IPS/UPS). In turn, they will discontinue electricity trading with Russia once synchronization is complete. Even though the Baltic States had stopped trading electricity with Belarus in November 2020, when it launched the first unit of Ostrovets NPP, synchronization will help to enforce the trading restrictions better.