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WARSAW – As the Baltic states finalized their transition from Russia’s electricity grid to the EU system on Sunday, cutting a decades-old Soviet-era connection, the LitPol link between Lithuania and Poland became operational.
At 1:05pm local time, Lithuania’s electricity transmission system operator, Litgrid, announced that the Baltic states had successfully synchronised their power grids through the LitPol Link, as the Polish electricity operator (PSE) confirmed.
“Preparations for synchronisation have been going on for several years and PSE has been involved from the very beginning. This is a historic event, but our cooperation does not end there,” said PSE President Grzegorz Onichimowski.
He noted that preparations are already underway for the construction of a new Poland-Lithuania interconnection, Harmony Link, which Onichimowski said “will further strengthen security in the region.”
In December 2024, PSE approved the investment to build the Harmony Link power connection. The total cost of the project amounts to around €923 million.
On the Lithuanian side, the maximum budget for the project will be €220 million, of which €147.2 million will be financed by the EU. In Poland, investment is expected to reach around €703 million, including €368 million from the EU budget.
In September, Litgrid’s shareholders decided that Harmony Link would be built over land instead of under the sea. This may help to avoid incidents involving damaged cables in the Baltic Sea, like the ones witnessed in recent months.
The Lithuanian part of the connection will include both an overhead line and an underground cable. There are also plans to use the Rail Baltica and Via Baltica infrastructure between Poland and Lithuania.
Sunday’s ceremony in Vilnius that marked the Baltic countries’ connection to the European electricity grid was attended by Polish president Andrzej Duda.
“What we are witnessing today is the immense work of almost 18 years of tireless efforts,” he said, adding that the Baltic countries’ move is “a final emancipation from the Soviet sphere of dependence, this time in the sphere of energy.”
“For any nation in central Europe, especially after the renewal of Russian neo-imperialism, cutting all ties with Russia is a moral imperative and a necessity,” the Polish president said.
“Connected,” Edgars Rinkēvičs, Latvian President, posted on X a picture of himself standing alongside the other Baltic leaders, Duda, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)
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