Stories about the energy independence of individual Ukrainian cities, particularly Zhytomyr, do not correspond to the real state of affairs and create a false impression of communities' preparedness for energy crises. This was stated by former Ukrenergo head Volodymyr Kudrytskyi in an interview with the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center, as reported by UNN.
Details
According to him, despite the implementation of cogeneration units, Zhytomyr, like other cities, remains critically dependent on the national energy grid.
We cannot say that Zhytomyr is energy independent. As soon as the city is disconnected from the main grid and tries to live on its own generation, there will be no electricity
He explained that the city's actual consumption is about 250–300 megawatts, while cogeneration units provide only a few megawatts of power.
What energy independence are we talking about if cogeneration is only a few megawatts compared to hundreds of megawatts of consumption?
Kudrytskyi also mentioned the so-called "Zhytomyr miracle" during past blackouts, which, according to him, was not related to the city's technical resilience but to the violation of the national transmission system operator's orders.
The local operator simply did not execute Ukrenergo's command to disconnect, at the expense of other cities. This was a scandalous story
He called for abandoning "magical thinking" about supposedly specially prepared cities and objectively assessing the scale of the problem.
According to him, the level of decentralized generation in megacities remains extremely low.
Kyiv provides itself with its own generation by approximately 2%, Kharkiv by about 8%. What's the point of comparing who prepared better?
Separately, he drew attention to the results of nationwide preparation for energy challenges.
According to him, with a deficit of about 7,000 megawatts, only about 600 megawatts of new generating capacity were built.
This is approximately 9% of the real need
The former head of Ukrenergo emphasized that real changes are possible only with the large-scale deployment of distributed generation and a systematic approach to protecting energy infrastructure.
Recall
Former Ukrenergo head Volodymyr Kudrytskyi stated that Kyiv's residential areas, particularly Troieshchyna, are critically dependent on a limited number of large energy facilities. This increases their vulnerability during Russian attacks, as the lack of local sources leads to widespread blackouts.