News & events

2015-02-03

Common Baltic electricity balancing market – important step towards European integration

The transmission system operators (TSOs) of the Baltic countries have created a platform for a common imbalance settlement: since the start of 2015 differences between the planned and actual consumption of the electricity systems of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have been calculated jointly. Maintaining the balance between electricity generation and consumption is one of the main functions of TSOs. The common Baltic electricity balancing market ensures the demand and supply balance at lower the costs for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. 
 
The systems are balanced in real time, the balancing electricity is traded on the power exchange. Before January 1, 2015, each TSO individually covered imbalances between generation and production. Now the imbalances of the energy systems of all three countries are aggregated to optimise the costs of balancing. The imbalance in one country is compensated by the surplus of another country, thus reducing the demand for balance electricity. 
 
"By joining into a Baltic balancing block we are able to reduce the cost of balancing our electricity systems and learn to operate together with the TSOs of the neighbouring countries. In the nearest future the Baltic countries intend to join the electricity balancing market of Nordic countries. We are also preparing for the joint operations of system control as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia plan to integrate into the Continental European network," said Daivis Virbickas, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Litgrid, the Lithuanian electricity transmission system operator.