Energo: Russia, Belarus set up joint electricity market

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko have signed off on an agreement to unite their energy markets as part of plans to create a Union State.

The treaty lays the legal groundwork for the creation, operation and development of the market regulating the purchase and sale of electricity. However, signing the agreement does not guarantee the immediate operation of the joint market.

The deal does not outline a specific timeline for the launch of the Union State energy market, which it is believed may commence operations by January 1, 2025. In Belarus, the draft agreement received approval last year on November 27, 2023, by Decree No. 376.

Belarusian Energy Minister Viktor Karankevich initially declared a start date of January 1, which was subsequently retracted by the Russian Ministry of Energy citing unresolved technical and legal details. Later announcements set the market's launch for January 1, 2025, and a unified market for the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) by 2027, though these dates remain tentative given ongoing disagreements between the countries.