Power Engineers Restore One Third Of Damaged Generating Capacity In Ukraine

Wedoany.com Report-Nov 7, Ukrainian power engineers have managed to restore a third of the nine gigawatts of damaged generating capacity, Ukrainian prime minister's advisor and member of Ukrenergo's Supervisory Board Yury Boiko said.

"It was reported this spring that around nine gigawatts of generating capacity was damaged. As of today, power engineers have managed to put more than a third of this back into operation," Ukrainian media quoted him as saying at a press briefing in Kiev on Wednesday.

"Overall, we are expecting this winter either without restrictions or with minimal restrictions with temperatures at -5 degrees Celsius inclusive. At the same time, a shortage of electricity in the system is expected if there is a long period of three to five days with temperatures of -10 degrees Celsius and lower. Under such circumstances, the existing generating capacity, given the pace and schedules of its restoration, and the imported resource, increased to 2.1 GW, will still not be enough. We will have to impose from one to three rounds of restriction schedules on such severely cold days. There will be three rounds if of course there are very low temperatures," Boiko said.

"Really very cold days have been few during the year" recently, he said.

"Should Ukraine's energy sector have been ready for any temperatures before the crisis, today, as a result of large-scale damage, we are dependent on weather and will face restrictions in such scenarios," he said.

Boiko said that his expectations and "cautious optimism" are based on weather statistics and forecasts, as well as on a "realistic schedule of bringing power capacity back into the system."

He also urged to be guided by objective forecasts for winter, which could be made by a small group of experts.

"Due to the restricted-access information, a small number of people knows the real situation, and I would urge to be guided by the forecasts and estimates of those who have access to information," Boiko said.