Lithuania to continue to seek deal with Latvia, Estonia on faster synchronization

VILNIUS – Lithuania is technically ready for the electricity grid's accelerated synchronization with the Continental European system and will continue to seek agreement with Latvia and Estonia on speeding up the process, Kestutis Budrys, Gitanas Nauseda's national security advisor, said on Monday. 

The president-chaired State Defense Council will return to the issue after Energy Minister Dainius Kreivys has worked out a detailed plan, according to Budrys. 

"As we know, Lithuania has successfully carried out the isolated operation test, which only strengthens our direction and resolve," the advisor told reporters after the Council's meeting.

"We are on the right track, we are technologically ready and we will continue to work with our partners in the region – Latvia and Estonia – to implement these decisions on accelerated synchronization with Continental Europe, which will be the focus of the State Defense Council's work of in the near future," Budrys said.  

"The energy minister will come back with a more precise and faster timetable of decisions and a plan on how we will do all this," he added. 

Laurynas Kasciunas, chairman of the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defense, who took part in Monday's meeting, said that it is in Lithuania's interest that the three Baltic countries synchronize their grids with Western Europe together. 

"It is in the interest of all branches of our government that the three Baltic states synchronize (their grids) together as quickly as possible," he told reporters. "This is a fundamental and strategic goal that we are pursuing through all channels."

Lithuania aims to complete the power grid synchronization in 2024, but Latvia and Estonia are hesitant to speed up the process, saying that they will decide after the results of the ongoing technical feasibility studies on system adequacy, stability and pricing are presented in late May.

Under an agreement signed by the Baltic leaders and the European Commission in 2018, the three countries are to synchronize their power grids with the Continental European system by the end of 2025.