Next winter, Ukraine will have an important factor that was not present in the previous winter - electricity imports. This was stated by Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, Chairman of the Board of NPC Ukrenergo, in an interview with the BBC, UNN reports.
"I cannot disclose specific information, such as what percentage or how many megawatts of generation have already been restored and how many will be restored for the winter. Because this information is quite sensitive and may give the enemy some opportunities to calculate their future attacks. We need to clearly understand two things. The first is that it will be impossible to restore all these 9 GW that we have lost by winter. That is, we will still operate with a certain reduced generation volume compared to the situation in February 2024," Kudrytskyi said.
According to him, the plans for the restoration of power plants that have been drawn up are being implemented, and the power plants are on schedule, plus or minus.
"As of the end of August, we expected to have as much nuclear, thermal or hydro generation as we had at the end of August, and we are operating with these volumes, give or take. Next winter, we will have an important factor that was not present in the previous winter: electricity imports. It was almost zero all last winter. We did not have any blackouts last winter, but we often had to engage emergency assistance from European countries as an operator. This is a tool of last resort, so to speak. And only a few months ago, the newly appointed regulator adopted the much-needed changes to liberalize prices in our Ukrainian market and allow these imports to enter the country," said Kudrytskyi.
Міністр енергетики попередив: попереду надскладна зима23.08.24, 11:36
He noted that these imports, this capacity, are not filled by 100%.
"But in winter, we will definitely have quite significant support from European countries. First of all, because Ukrenergo has united the Ukrainian and European energy systems, provided this technical possibility of imports, and the economic opportunity was provided by these more liberalized prices on the wholesale electricity market. This does not apply to household tariffs, it applies to prices for business and prices on the free energy market," Kudrytskyi said.