At a government meeting, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal spoke about the repairs that have been made at nuclear power plants, thermal power plants, combined heat and power plants, and the state of the Ukrainian energy system before the heating season.
According to him, as of today, preparations for the autumn-winter period are entering their final stage.
As for nuclear power plants, seven power units have been repaired, and two more will be ready for the start of the heating season. "Their total capacity will be 7.8 GW. We are making an important step towards energy independence - new nuclear fuel from Westinghouse has been loaded at Rivne NPP instead of the Russian monopoly on such types of fuel. Europe, together with Ukraine, must remove Russia from this market to get rid of the energy threat," the Prime Minister said.
Thermal power plants: The Energy Ministry has pledged that 25 power units will be operational by the beginning of the season, which will provide the power system with 4.5 GW of capacity, Shmyhal said.
In addition, almost 80% of the equipment of thermal power plants has been repaired. Intensive repairs are still underway and will be completed on time, the Prime Minister assured.
The situation with hydroelectric power plants is as follows: 35 hydroelectric units with a capacity of almost 2.3 GW have been repaired and are under repair.
"According to the Ministry of Energy, a total of 804 MW of the planned additional 1.7 GW of capacity has already been added to the system," the Prime Minister said.
Ready for winter:
- 15,200 boiler houses,
- about 84% of heating networks,
- 78% of central heating stations,
- more than 80% of residential buildings,
- 86% of schools, kindergartens and hospitals.
"It should be 100% in a month," said Shmyhal.
He assured that local budgets also have enough funds to complete all preparatory work for the onset of cold weather. "Where it is necessary, we should accelerate the work in order to turn on the heat in time," the Prime Minister said.
The Head of Government added that at the meeting before last, the government allocated an additional 9.7bn hryvnas to protect the critical infrastructure of the fuel and energy sector.
Moldova has provided Ukraine with a batch of humanitarian aid for the energy sector. Ukraine will also receive more Gepard anti-aircraft tanks to protect energy facilities. Lithuania has donated another powerful autotransformer that can provide power to up to 200,000 households.