On Saturday, the Baltic states will finally desynchronise from the BRELL electricity grid, which links it to Russia and Belarus. But the region is still vulnerable to Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure.
History happens this weekend, when Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia desynchronise from the Soviet-era electricity grid that has kept the Baltic states connected to the same frequency as Russia and Belarus. Getting off it has been a long time coming — and comes while geopolitical tensions are running hot.
Switching over to the grid that most of the European Union is on sets the former Soviet republics one more step apart from their former occupiers. Baltic officials and security analysts are watching for what response that may provoke from Moscow — if it hasn’t already.
Of the several energy links between the region and points west, the Baltics settled on the LitPol one — so-called because it connects Lithuania and Poland to the rest of continental Europe. The switch is less about energy supply than “frequency control,” which is necessary for a safe and stable power supply. Until now, that role has been fulfilled by the Russian-run BRELL grid – an acronym for Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.