Baltic States to Decouple From Russia-Controlled Power Grid

The electricity transmission system operators (TSOs) of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have formally notified Russia and Belarus of their plans to decouple from a Moscow-controlled electricity system, citing the expected benefits of greater reliability and energy security. The Baltic countries stopped buying electricity from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. The move to delink from the Russian grid and instead connect to the main continental European energy network amounts to an even more decisive move to cut ties. The Baltic state TSOs said in a July 16 joint statement that they had sent Russia a notice of non-extension of the so-called BRELL agreement, under which Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have been operating in an electrical grid called IPS/UPS, which is centrally controlled by Moscow....