Europe Achieves Energy Independence From Russia
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, European nations have been scrambling to sever ties with their adversarial neighbor (see “Russia’s Power Play,” April 2022 Gas Compression Magazine, p. 3). Three years later, the conflict continues but the Europe Union (EU) has reached a milestone, achieving energy independence from Russia.
On February 9, 2025, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania successfully synchronized their electricity grids with the Continental Europe Synchronous Area (CESA) grid. The Baltic states were the last three EU member nations whose electricity networks were still operating fully within the Russian and Belarussian system. With Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania now part Europe’s synchronous grid, all electricity interconnections with Russia and Belarus have been permanently disconnected.
The CESA grid has a synchronized frequency of 50 Hz and supplies over 400 million customers in 24 countries. Transmission system operators in CESA have the responsibility to maintain the frequency at 50 Hz to ensure the stability of the system. This means energy resources and consumption must always be balanced across the synchronous area, something the Baltics countries have never had. Tied to the Russian and Belarussian system, their electricity was controlled by Russia, leaving them vulnerable to Russia’s weaponization of energy.
The synchronization of the Baltics into the EU’s electricity grid was supported by the European Commission with unprecedented political, technical, and financial backing. This includes US$1.27 billion in grants from the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), which covered 75% of the investment costs; more than 40 infrastructure projects; and cooperation between governments, engineers, and institutions.
CEF is the EU funding program for implementing the Trans-European Networks for energy policy, a long-standing instrument for connecting EU countries’ energy networks. CEF supports investments in building new cross-border energy infrastructure in Europe and rehabilitating and upgrading existing facilities. In addition to grants, the CEF offers financial support to projects through guarantees and project bonds.
“Today, history is being made. The Baltic States are switching on energy independence. The last electricity grids in Europe still linked to Russia are now fully integrated into Europe’s internal energy market, with the support of over 1 billion euros of European funding over the years. The last remaining electricity lines with Russia and Belarus will now be dismantled. These chains of power lines, linking the Baltic states to hostile neighbors will be a thing of the past,” said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
“Synchronization is about sovereignty. For too long, we Europeans depended on Russian energy. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 45% of our gas, 50% of our coal, and nearly one-third of our oil came from Russia. But Russian energy came at a price: blackmail, price shocks, economic uncertainty. So we acted. With REPowerEU, we slashed our dependency on Russian fossil fuels. We stopped importing Russian coal. We cut Russian oil purchases down to 3%. We reduced gas imports by 75%. And today, the last electricity grids in Europe that were still linked to Russia are now fully integrated into Europe’s internal energy market,” continued President von der Leyen.
“This story is also about resilience. Russia targets European infrastructure, testing our defenses, spreading chaos and fear. And once again, the Baltic states lead by example. This is how we must think across Europe. We must move from reacting to preparing — closer coordination between Member States, better protection of our critical infrastructure, readiness across government and society to defend the European way of life,” concluded President von der Leyen concluded. “The Baltic synchronization makes us stronger, more resilient, and better prepared for the future.”
