The mayor of Mykolaiv Sienkevych wants to turn the city into an «energy island»: what does this mean

In Mykolaiv, they plan to create an energy island to provide residents with heat during blackouts. Oleksandr Sienkevych. Photo: «NikVesti» archive

The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, announced plans to create an «energy island» in the city, which will ensure a stable heat supply during large-scale power outages.

He stated this in an interview with Ukrinform.

According to him, the so-called «energy island» in Mykolaiv will provide the city with electricity for at least a few hours during long-term power outages.

«With the support of international partners, we are dealing with the issue of gas generation. We have a plan to create a separate energy island in Mykolaiv, so that, thanks to our own generation capacities, we can provide electricity at least hourly during long blackouts,» he said.

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Oleksandr Sienkevych noted that Mykolayiv has two main enterprises for heat supply: the communal Mykolaivoblteploenergo, which is already equipped with generators, and the state thermal power plant (CHP). However, the situation at the thermal power plant is more complicated due to the large number of substations, for which additional diesel generators must be purchased.

«We have two enterprises that provide the city with heat. Mykolaivoblteploenergo is well prepared, it is equipped with generators in case of a power outage. Although, as you know, this is an expensive pleasure. However, during the last outage, we had failures in three boiler houses... However, the situation is more difficult at the CHP, which is state-owned, because they have a large number of pumping substations. Therefore, although the CHP itself was working, not all consumers were supplied with heat. Now we will try to equip all their substations with diesel generators,» he said.

The mayor also highlighted the problem of manually starting generators when the power goes out due to a lack of workers.

«Another problem is that generators cannot be started remotely. When turning off the lights, you need to have workers who would go there and turn each one on manually. Now we are forming such groups, but there are not enough people. We are solving this «problem of a traveling salesman,» added the mayor.

Earlier, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration Vitalii Kim explained the situation with power outages in the Mykolaiv region, noting that the region, despite having its own sources of generation, is forced to comply with the general energy rules of Ukraine.

We will remind that the energy infrastructure of the Mykolaiv region is planned to be modernized in accordance with the standards of the European Union.

According to the acting director of Mykolaivoblenergo Vadym Danylkiv, this is necessary in order for the region to receive assistance from European countries — energy equipment.