Baltic states’ plan to link up to the EU grid comes with risks

As European nations move closer towards economic and political union, so are their power supplies bound to keep getting interlinked more tightly. A case in point: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are working to hitch their power grid onto the EU’s via a single link in Poland.

Under the 2001 BRELL agreement, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have been integrated into a power grid operated by Russia, but these Baltic states are now planning to switch to the EU’s grid for their energy needs after 2020. By uncoupling themselves from Russia and linking up with the EU, these countries hope to ensure a more secure source of supply to power their economies while simultaneously reducing costs for local consumers.

Part of that more reliable supply of readily available energy may one day come from nuclear power in nations like Hungary that are working to boost their nuclear power-generating capacity through the construction of new plants and reactors.

“The energy mix needs nuclear energy for its ability to produce low-carbon energy on a massive and continuous basis,” Christian Fournier, director of nuclear cycle sales at the consulting firm Assystem, noted at the World Nuclear Exhibition, which ran from June 26 to 28, in Paris.

However, much of the domestic energy mix in Central European nations continues to rely heavily on highly polluting power sources like coal. The results are that local environments are badly polluted and lots of extra CO2 is released into the atmosphere, adding further to the climate change-driving greenhouse effect.

One such country is Poland, whose domestically produced supply of electricity comes from coal-powered plants, which has resulted in persistently high levels of air pollution. Poland’s coal industry remains a dominant force in the economy, albeit the country’s government says it wants to start investing heavily in alternative forms of energy by constructing new wind farms in its windswept Baltic region.

In other words, Central European nations themselves are facing problems when it comes to energy security, especially the clean and green variety. In Germany, the economic powerhouse at the heart of Europe, renewables now account for almost a third of domestic electricity generation, yet Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions, which were previously falling, are now inching up again.

The reason is simple: coal plants still need to feature prominently in the energy mix since renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, in which Germany has been investing heavily, are weather-dependent and so inherently inconsistent. This means they cannot provide a steady supply of energy all year round. To make matters worse, the country also suffers from periodic problems with its grid, which remains underdeveloped.

“Crippling grid issues render the celebrated increase in renewable power generation almost meaningless,” explains an industry publication. “These grid bottlenecks have serious knock-on effects for Germany’s neighbours. Since the country’s north-south power lines lack the capacity to carry energy from North Sea turbines into the country’s industrial heartland, so-called ‘power loop flows’ automatically divert electricity via neighbouring power grids. Typically, the Czech Republic and Poland bear the brunt of the overflow. They are now installing devices known as phase shifters to prevent widespread blackouts during surges.”

In other words, the EU’s extension of its electricity network to Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia may come with some built-in flaws, not the least of which will be German energy surges triggered by the regular supply of coal-powered energy periodically boosted by sudden surges of extra power from renewable sources. Some experts believe that increased reliance on nuclear energy could help solve such problems in an environmentally responsible manner.

Nuclear energy, explains one such expert, Prof. Jan-Horst Keppler, of Université Paris-Dauphine who is a senior adviser at OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, “has the great advantage of being dispatchable: we know when it’s producing, it produces reliably 24 hours. Renewables “do not, we have this variability and intermittency,” Keppler adds.

As it stands now, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will be receiving from the EU grid energy primarily produced by coal and renewables. The challenge for these countries now is to find a balanced energy mix able to both ward off supply shortages while adhering to CO2-emission targets.