Baltics limiting electricity imports from Russia

TALLINN – Baltic electricity transmission system operators Elering, AST and Litgrid have reduced the transmission capacity for the import of electricity from Russia to 300 megawatts as a risk mitigation measure.  

The purpose of the move is to ensure the reliable functioning of the Baltic electricity system also in the event of an emergency desynchronization of the Baltic power supply systems from the Russian and Belarusian grids, spokespeople for Elering said on Thursday.

After the change, up to 150 megawatts of electricity can be sold to the Latvian price area of the electricity exchange from mainland Russia and up to 150 megawatts to price area Lithuania from the Kaliningrad region of Russia. As before, electricity cannot be sold directly to Estonia from Russia.  

Electricity sales from Russia to the Latvian and Lithuanian price areas in recent weeks have been mostly in the range of 300-600 megawatts, depending on the hour and the day. Thus, the maximum potential energy flow from Russia was approximately halved through the measure. 

Electricity consumption in the Baltic states currently ranges from 3,000 to 4,000 megawatts, depending on the hour. Although after the change, the share of Russian electricity in the market here will be less than 10 percent, Elering says that its impact on the formation of the price of electricity on the electricity exchange is not excluded.