The fifth winter of the full-scale war will be no less difficult than the previous ones. Ukraine’s energy sector is being hit by missiles and drones, but the system is holding up.
First Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said this during the government question time on 21 August. He noted that the power system is currently operating steadily and without scheduled supply restrictions, but everything will depend on further strikes.
At present, taking cogeneration and imports into account, 15 gigawatts of electric capacity are available. Of this, more than 40% is provided by nuclear power plants, 25% by thermal power plants, and 15% by hydropower.
“Six of the nine nuclear power units are generating electricity. Three are undergoing scheduled maintenance, and repairs have already been completed on five. We will continue to increase our energy capacity. By 1 November it should rise to 19.6 gigawatts,” the First Deputy Prime Minister said.
By the end of the year, the target is 21.4 gigawatts, provided Russia does not destroy the restored capacity. This includes both imports and distributed generation. So far, more than 4.8 GW of generating capacity has been restored, with about 4 more being restored. Overall, the plan is to repair and build more than 10 gigawatts of capacity over the year, making it one of the largest repair campaigns.
More than 3,300 tonnes of equipment from decommissioned CHPPs and TPPs have been supplied by partner countries—Lithuania and Germany—with deliveries from Latvia expected. This makes it possible to receive and install engineering units within months, whereas building them would have taken years.
“Before the heating season begins, repairs to generation facilities, including nuclear power units, will be completed. And we will reach maximum readiness,” Shmyhal said.
- Last year, Russia destroyed 8.5 GW of power generation in Ukraine. The Russian mili has been attacking energy infrastructure since the first year of the full-scale war. These attacks led to emergency and scheduled restrictions on electricity supply.