Russia struck the energy infrastructure in 11 regions overnight on October 19, having deliberately attacked Ukraine’s energy and oil and gas sectors 87 times over the past week. Due to the Russian attacks, some residents are without electricity, with new power outages reported in 10 regions. Bad weather has caused power disruptions in three regions. The Ministry of Energy reported this, UNN writes.
Enemy attacks
"At night and in the morning, Russia attacked energy facilities in the Vinnytsia, Volyn, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Kharkiv, Ternopil, Odesa and Rivne regions. As a result of the strikes, some consumers were left without electricity. New power outages due to shelling and hostilities were also recorded in the Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Kherson and Chernihiv regions," the Ministry of Energy reported.
"Over the past day, the enemy continued its drone attacks on Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure, and at night and in the morning carried out a missile strike on a number of energy facilities. As a result, as of morning there were new power outages in the Volyn, Zhytomyr, Rivne, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Kharkiv, Odesa and Mykolaiv regions," Ukrenergo уточнили.
Energy workers have already managed to restore power to some consumers. Restoration work is continuing wherever the security situation allows, although it is being complicated by prolonged air-raid alerts and the threat of repeated shelling, the ministry stated.
"Over the past week, Russia deliberately attacked Ukraine’s energy and oil and gas sectors 87 times. A total of 224 incidents that caused damage to energy and oil and gas infrastructure were recorded," the Ministry of Energy said in a statement.
As stated, "in the Vinnytsia region, one energy worker was injured as a result of Russia’s attack on an energy facility." The injured person received all necessary medical assistance.
Bad weather
Due to bad weather, more than 140 settlements in the Kyiv, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions remain without electricity. Repair crews are working to restore power.
Schedules
Due to grid restrictions caused by Russian attacks, hourly electricity outage schedules and capacity restriction schedules for industry and businesses are in effect in some regions today. These are necessary measures to stabilize the operation of the energy system and prevent larger-scale accidents, the Ministry of Energy noted.
"To prevent overloading equipment damaged by previous Russian shelling, capacity restriction schedules for industry and hourly outage schedules (up to two queues) for all categories of consumers will necessarily be applied in some regions today until the end of the day," Ukrenergo added.
Consumption
According to Ukrenergo, electricity consumption has increased. Today, October 19, as of 09:30, it was 4.5% higher than at the same time on the previous working day—Friday, October 16. The reason for the change is cloudy, rainy weather in most regions of Ukraine. This results in low operating efficiency of household solar power plants and a corresponding increase in the amount of energy consumption from the general grid. Yesterday, October 18, the daily consumption peak was recorded in the evening. It was 2.9% higher than the peak of the previous Sunday, October 11. This was caused by a drop in air temperature, prompting consumers to use electric heaters in the evening hours.