Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are likely now to delay the start of their joint electricity market, which was due to start up in January, until the end of next year. Following a meeting of the three Baltic prime ministers in Riga on 23 September a new timetable for creating the joint electricity market and integrating it within the Nord Pool Spot price area of the Nordic power market was agreed. The original target date had been agreed originally by the Baltic countries’ transmission system operators in April 2010.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania face an increasing shortage of power capacity as they close old facilities that fall short of European Union safety or pollution standards, while the lack of a functioning Baltic power market has deterred private investors.
The three countries are connected to the western European grid by a single connection cable between Estonia and Finland. They plan to build cables to Sweden and Poland, with EU help, to cut dependence on Russia’s electricity grid, because of concerns about the security of their power supplies.