Baltic States – CIS, Energy, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Lithuania

Litgrid CEO Daivis Virbickas says that the project has to be launched as soon as possible so as to be able to decouple from the BRELL ring, which also includes Russia and Belarus, by 2025.

"Today we don't have political agreement among Estonians, Lithuanians and Latvians. The Estonians didn't agree to sign a memorandum of understanding; it's not signed," Virbickas said in a presentation of Litgrid's first-half performance results on Friday.

"The Estonians have their own arguments, they presented them, but the result is that the memorandum is not signed yet and it makes us worry a bit. We have to think as the grid operators what to do to achieve our goal as soon as possible and not later than in 2025," he said.

Vilnius maintains that the existing LitPol Link interconnector between Lithuania and Poland is sufficient for synchronization, but Estonia argues that it would not be safe enough and wants a second line to be built or the synchronization to the done via Scandinavia.

However, Lithuania fears that discussions on a new line with Poland, which has made it clear that building it would be too difficult, might delay the synchronization project for years.

Virbickas on Friday reiterated Litgrid's position that a second line could be built after the synchronization project has been completed.

It was planned that the Baltic countries and Poland would sign a memorandum of understanding on synchronization during an EU summit in June. However, the signing was put off as Estonia did not agree to synchronization via the single line.