20 April 2005 - With active support and investment from the European Commission, the Union for the Coordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE) will today begin the largest system study in its history.

The project, which has taken several years of preparation, will investigate the possibility of a future synchronous interconnection of the electricity systems of UCTE and IPS/UPS. It is hoped that a link up between Europe and the Baltic States, Russia and countries surrounding Russia, will enable further developments of electricity markets.

Boris Ayuev, CEO of the System Operator of the Unified Power System of Russia, and Martin Fuchs, president of UCTE, signed the necessary cooperation agreement on 19 April 2005.

The study will investigate the possible synchronization of the two systems that have so far been developed independently in technical, organizational and legal terms. A synchronous interconnection would lead to an electricity system with an installed generation capacity of approximately 800 GW, spanning 13 time zones and serving around 800 million people.

The study will be a joint project under the responsibility of UCTE.