Since the beginning of October, several regions of Ukraine have regularly restricted electricity consumption for households, businesses and industry despite there being no shortage.
Ukrenergo explained the main reasons for introducing outages.
The company said that one of the reasons for the outages was a new tactic in Russian attacks. Russia is carrying out continuous strikes on substations and transmission and distribution lines near major cities with high levels of consumption.
Because of damage to the networks, it becomes difficult or impossible to deliver the required volume of electricity in certain directions, even if other regions have surplus capacity.
Another reason is the systematic destruction of generation facilities by Russian strikes in certain regions. As a result, electricity has to be transmitted hundreds of kilometres, creating additional strain on the main grids. It is these that Russia is now directing a significant share of its strikes at.
Constant air-raid alerts in regions where Russians are carrying out mass attacks on high-voltage substations and lines complicate emergency repair and restoration work. Energy workers are operating under the threat of repeat strikes, including on locations where specialists and specialised equipment are deployed.
Ukrenergo noted that, because of the combination of these factors, power has to be switched off in some regions while there are no restrictions in others. At the same time, to avoid surplus capacity in the power system, electricity exports may be carried out.
Energy workers have the necessary experience, equipment and stocks of hardware to restore power supply after Russian attacks. At the same time, consumers in regions where forced restrictions are in place were urged to use electricity sparingly.
“The lower the load on the networks, the shorter the periods of forced power cuts will be,” the company stressed.
- On 10 October, hourly schedules of power cuts will be in effect in parts of Ukraine’s regions for all categories of consumers, as well as for businesses and industry. The reason for introducing the restrictions is the consequences of Russian missile-and-drone attacks on energy facilities.