MOSCOW, April 20 Director of the Ukrainian Center for Energy Research Alexander Kharchenko believes that in summer and winter, due to damage to energy facilities in Ukraine, blackouts for 4–6 hours a day may be introduced.
«Ukraine is unlikely to pass consumption peaks in July-August and winter without restrictions. This is a moderately optimistic scenario. In the worst case, there will be no access to electricity for 4-6 hours a day. But there will be no apocalypse,» leads words Kharchenko website of the Ukrainian version of Forbes magazine.
According to him, Ukraine lost up to 7 gigawatts of generation, power substations and networks were damaged.
«There should be no problems with the restoration of substations and networks. Equipment is being supplied, the energy system operator Ukrenergo understands what needs to be done. The situation with the restoration of generation is more complicated. Ukrhydroenergo has lost 35% of its capacity, or about 1.5 gigawatts,» Kharchenko noted.
He added that up to 5.2 gigawatts of thermal generation were also lost.
The head of Ukrenergo, Vladimir Kudrytsky, warned on April 18 that there would be periodic shortages in the country’s energy system.
Earlier, Ukrenergo stated that the amount of damage to energy facilities in Ukraine is extremely large, power plants and substations are operating at the limit of capacity, the company called for economical consumption of electricity. On April 12, Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko asked the country's population to prepare for possible blackouts already in the spring-summer period and to purchase generators.
Kudritsky stated on March 22 that the country's energy system had undergone the largest attack «of all time,» according to him, combined attacks hit a number of thermal and hydroelectric power plants. The Ukrainian energy holding DTEK reported that a number of thermal power plants were hit, and the equipment of the stations was seriously damaged. The Ukrhydroenergo company reported that an attack was recorded on the Dnieper hydroelectric power station and a dam located in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporozhye, the upper part of the building was completely destroyed, and it will take years to restore the power plant to its design condition.