Dhe electricity grids of Ukraine and Moldova are now connected to the continental European transmission system. This was announced by EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson on Wednesday. The connection is intended to stabilize the power supply in the two countries and prevent sudden blackouts. In the embattled Ukraine, the power goes out again and again in entire regions, some cities have to get by largely without electricity.
The EU will continue to support Ukraine in the energy sector, such as gas flows into the country and urgently needed energy supplies, Simson said. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the step towards a unified power grid and wrote on Twitter: “Ukraine, Moldova and Europe: Common values, common electricity and solidarity.”
A few hours before the Russian attack, Ukraine had disconnected from the Russian and Belarusian power grids for a long-awaited test. The European network operators had requested two test runs, the second should take place in the summer. This was intended to show Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, which is technically connected to it, that they could also maintain their power supply for several days on their own. Ukraine succeeded in doing this during the war, when the demand for electricity suddenly fell sharply.
Ties to Russia and Belarus severed
However, the government in Kyiv announced four days after the start of the war that it would not reconnect to the power grid in Russia and Belarus. She could be sure of the support of America, which has long been pushing for Ukraine to be firmly connected to the European grid. The country had not purchased electricity from Russia for a long time, but from Belarus until recently – not least to conserve domestic coal reserves. Now Kyiv has also cut the safety net with its former Soviet-era allies.
However, Kyiv immediately requested an emergency connection to the continental European network in Brussels. The EU Commission then asked the electricity network operators, which are part of the Entso-e association, to guarantee this. They asked for a transition period of 14 days, not least because Russia would have overrun the country by then and the request could become obsolete – which did not happen.
At the beginning of February, Entso-e also announced that the studies completed at the end of 2021 on the basis of agreements reached years ago had shown “that additional measures are required to ensure the stability of the interconnected grid. These measures will be included in the catalog of measures contained in the agreements”.
“Try synchronization of the networks begins”
On Wednesday afternoon, Entso-e announced that “Following an urgent request from Ukrenergo and Moldova for emergency synchronization, the TSOs of Continental Europe have agreed to start trial synchronization of the Continental European power system with the power systems of Ukraine and Moldova on March 16, 2022”. This acceleration of the synchronization project, which has been running since 2017, has been made possible thanks to the studies carried out previously and the adoption of risk mitigation measures.