Baltics unplug from Russia

[dan_b]

Interesting and thought provoking - the 3x Baltic States have disconnected themselves from the main Russian electrical grid and have now synchronised into the European Grid.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crlkwyljl8lo

[Thebeeman]

I hope Europe and us via our cross channel links ensure they don't have any issues and regret the move.

[dan_b]

I wonder if that's why Russia has been busy damaging power cables in the Baltic sea over the last couple of years...

[Mart]

I hope Europe and us via our cross channel links ensure they don't have any issues and regret the move.

True, but the article points out that they haven't bought leccy from Russia since 2022, so hopefully it's working OK ..... so far?

[AE-NMidlands]

I hope Europe and us via our cross channel links ensure they don't have any issues and regret the move.

True, but the article points out that they haven't bought leccy from Russia since 2022, so hopefully it's working OK ..... so far?

but I think I read that the problem was that until now they have relied on the Russian grid to stabilise their own which was a major vulnerability, hence the need to disconnect completely.

[dan_b]

Just read this about the grid stability

"𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
We have just witnessed one of the biggest events in European grid history: Today, 08/02/2025, at 07:09 (UTC), the Baltic synchronous area was detached from the BRELL synchronous area. From tomorrow, 09/02/2025, 12:00 (UTC), the Baltic grid will be synchronised with the continental European grid. The separation from the Russian network has already gone smoothly. Today, the frequency curve shows that this has massively reduced grid stability. The violet curve in the graph shows the Baltic frequency, the yellow one the Continental European frequency of today so far. However, synchronisation with the largest synchronous area in the world will reduce these fluctuations again.
In the past, the Baltic grid was connected to the Russian (and Belarusian) grid via 7 cross-border interconnectors. In addition, there were 2 border interconnection points to Kaliningrad. The connection to the continental European grid will initially be made via a two-core 400kV AC line, the LitPolLink between the Lithuanian Alytus switchyard and Elk in Poland. The LitPolLink was previously an HVDC interconnector with a 1000 MW back-to-back interconnector in the Alytus switchyard.

We will provide a further post tomorrow after the synchronisation. If you are interested in the data, please send us a PN to info@gridradar.net."

[Mart]

I hope Europe and us via our cross channel links ensure they don't have any issues and regret the move.

True, but the article points out that they haven't bought leccy from Russia since 2022, so hopefully it's working OK ..... so far?

but I think I read that the problem was that until now they have relied on the Russian grid to stabilise their own which was a major vulnerability, hence the need to disconnect completely.

Yes, it's in the article, same sentence:

Now Nato members, they have not purchased electricity from Russia since 2022, but their connection to the Brell grid left them dependent on Moscow for energy flow.

[nowty]

The disconnection event.

[ecogeorge]

Wow -suprised to see it disconnected under load ! was there a high voltage spike in Russia as the load was removed ??
George

[Tinbum]

Wow -suprised to see it disconnected under load ! was there a high voltage spike in Russia as the load was removed ??
George

I think it was used for grid stabilisation, not under load as such..