| Abstract [eng] |
On April 22, 2023 Lithuanian electricity transmission operator Litgrid conducted an unprecedented experiment - 10 hours of full disconnection from the Soviet made and dispatched from Moscow electricity transmission system BRELL (an acronym standing for Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania). Practically it was a test of conditions under which electricity consumed in Lithuania is either produced inside the country or imported from the energy systems beyond BRELL, via two existing links - with Swedish and Polish electricity transmission systems. The experiment was widely celebrated as a milestone in the process of Lithuania gaining self-reliance vis-a-vis Russian Federation infrastructural energy politics. In this view Lithuania is the pioneer among three Baltic states to implement the adopted in 2017 shared roadmap for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to disconnect from the Soviet-made, controlled by Russia system; and, subsequently, to connect to the system of continental Europe by 2025. On one hand, this experiment retrospectively reveals that despite the profound transformations in economy, in institutions and in political culture after Soviet communism, the core of the infrastructural domain of Lithuanian society remained predominantly in the Soviet path. On the other hand, this experiment triggers futurist thinking on how Lithuania’s and Baltic states' geography could change after the BRELL infrastructural reality is over. How profound the reconfiguration of relations between energy, space, state and economy could be in the post-BRELL conditions? |
