Ukraine may return to planned shutdown next week, reports DTEK
Ukraine on a NASA satellite image taken on November 23 (Photo:NASA WORLDVIEW/Handout via REUTERS)
Due to a shortage of power in Ukraine’s national energy grid following mass missile strikes by Russian forces on critical infrastructure, houses in Kyiv are now being powered up for three to four hours, Oleksandr Fomenko, general director of Ukraine’s largest energy company DTEK, said on national TV on Nov. 25.
According to Fomenko, the restoration of high-voltage power lines has been completed in the capital and the last substation is planned to be plugged into power supply soon.
“We only have enough capacity for 30% of the needs of the city’s residents,” he warned.
“Therefore, now we turn on a group of houses for three to four hours, then switch to another group. In other words, residents of Kyiv will have light in their houses for four hours, but eight hours will not be there yet.”
Fomenko mentioned that in the oblasts of Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa, residential buildings are being switched on according to a similar algorithm. In Kyiv Oblast, the situation is more critical due to the large number of accidental damage caused by bad weather. Energy companies plan to restore networks in the capital region on Friday and switch back to scheduled outages, as in Kyiv, he added.
“Generation continues to increase capacity, so there is a high probability that the limits will increase and we will gradually reach the planned schedules of restrictions that were in effect before the last shelling,” said Fomenko.
“Roughly, sometime on Monday.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his evening address on Nov. 25 said that the number of consumers without electricity after the massive Russian attack on Nov. 23 has halved.
Previously, Ukraine’s grid operator Ukrenergo reported that as of 19:00 of Nov. 25, the energy system of Ukraine has a significant deficit — missing at least 30% of demand.
Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Center for Energy Research, said that it will take from five days to a week to switch back to the previous planned shutdown schedule after mass Russian strikes on Nov. 23.
On that day, Russian forces launched 67 cruise missiles at Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyy reported. Air defense forces destroyed 51 cruise missiles and five Lancet-type kamikaze drones.
Deputy presidential chief-of-staff Kyrylo Tymoshenko reported on Nov. 24 that electricity had been restored to all regions of Ukraine, though not all consumers would have unrestricted access. Power was first provided to infrastructure facilities, and households would be gradually reconnected over time.
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