Electricity imports currently account for about 12% of daily consumption in Ukraine, and the deficit during peak hours reaches about 1 GW, First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Energy Denys Shmyhal said on Friday during a question hour to the government in parliament, UNN writes.
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Shmyhal called the situation in the energy system one of six "key challenges in the energy sector."
"The situation has been stabilized. In some regions, there are no blackouts at all, in other regions, it's one or one and a half queues. The deficit at peak consumption is about 1 gigawatt. Nuclear power plants are working, thermal power plants are also working, HPPs and PSPs are working. The sun continues to give more, thanks to which there are no systemic restrictions at all throughout the country during off-peak hours," the minister noted.
Imports continue and amount to about 12 percent of the total daily consumption, thanks to which we better maintain the situation during peak load hours
At the same time, he pointed out that "it is necessary to understand that despite some improvement in the situation, the heating season is still ongoing, and the enemy's constant attempts to destroy our energy system continue." "We are ready for these challenges now and will be even better prepared next winter," Shmyhal said.
Separately, Shmyhal noted on Telegram that "Ukraine has gone through the most difficult winter in its history." "Since the beginning of the heating season, Russia has damaged more than 9 GW of generation and dozens of distribution facilities," he said.
Regarding another challenge - the restoration of energy facilities - the minister indicated that 3.5 GW of generation capacity of TPPs, CHPs, and HPPs had been partially restored. "The plans include the restoration of approximately 4 GW. In particular, by the end of May, it is possible to restore more than 2 GW. Our engineering delegations are working in the EU to obtain equipment from decommissioned stations. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, 1.5 GW of distributed generation has been put into operation," Shmyhal noted.
The next point is "the security of our energy facilities," the Minister of Energy said. "Active defense is air defense. We have a successful experimental project of involving critical infrastructure enterprises in the air defense system. We continue to build passive defense systems - shelters for energy facilities. The work of the second level of protection at 84 substations and 134 critical elements continues," the minister said.
"Accumulation of resources for next winter. By the end of this heating season, there will be 9.5 billion cubic meters of gas in storage. We aim for at least 13 billion cubic meters by the beginning of the next heating season," Shmyhal wrote on social media.
And during his speech in parliament, he added: "We expect that we will mostly pump gas of our own production, but we also plan to make additional purchases of gas on the European market during periods of favorable price conditions."
As the last point, Shmyhal indicated "finance and interaction with partners." "We have a plan to attract about 5 billion euros from international partners this year. Ukraine has proposed a new coordination format - "energy Ramstein." The next meeting will take place in Brussels next week. We are working to increase the capacity for electricity imports from Europe. The goal for the next two years is 3.5 GW and higher," the Vice Prime Minister said.