Winter blackouts inevitable in Ukraine: up to 5 hours per day without power in best case scenario

In Ukraine, generation shortages and blackouts are unavoidable. Ukrainians may suffer up to five hours a day without electricity in the best case scenario.

Source: Financial Times 

Details: According to DTEK, the largest private energy company in Ukraine, even under the best case scenario, the country will see five-hour daily blackouts this winter. Of course, this is assuming that Russia stops attacking the power infrastructure and the weather stays above -15 degrees Celsius.

Quote: "Ukraine has a short-term plan to survive this winter, but to assure energy security in the coming winters, we need to decentralise the energy system," said DTEK CEO Maksym Timchenko.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, former chairman of the board of Ukrenergo, stated that the biggest difficulty this winter is potential damage to large power plants rather than substations, which are mostly protected by shelters and rapidly repaired. 

"Shortages and shutdowns are inevitable," he said. "The question is whether they will be large or little, and this depends on how well the power plants are safeguarded. Air defence is vital, and decentralisation must be achieved concurrently."

Background: Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko was criticised for delaying energy decentralisation by two years: the ministry only began acting in this direction in the summer, having previously advocated for the construction of costly nuclear reactors.

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