The head of Naftogaz promised to monitor that Mykolaiv thermal power plant will be ready for the heating season this year

Oleksii Chernyshov, the head of the board of OJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine, said that the company will make every possible effort to avoid problems at Mykolaiv thermal power plant at the start of the 2024-2025 heating season.

He reported this in a comment to NikVesti.

As you know, last year Mykolaiv CHPP, which is part of Naftogaz of Ukraine group, had significant problems with the start-up of heating in the city, due to which the heating season started with a two-week delay. Oleksii Chernyshov assured that Naftogaz of Ukraine will keep the situation under control to ensure uninterrupted heating in Mykolaiv this winter.

Head of the Naftogaz Group, Oleksii Chernyshov, from the right side at the Ukraine Recovery Conference, June 11, 2024, photo NikVesti

«Yes, in fact, everyone knows that the owner of the Mykolaiv CHP is the Naftogaz of Ukraine group. We are responsibly preparing for the next heating season, this object must be prepared accordingly and checked. We understand that the object is in the immediate vicinity of possible attacks, possible military actions, so we are ready for its appropriate repair. We must take care of the future, we must take care of the possible reconstruction, modernization of this facility, make it more efficient in terms of natural gas consumption. Therefore, I believe that we will prepare accordingly,» noted Oleksii Chernyshov.

In addition, one of the problems that caused last year's complications at the start of the heating season was the corrosion of coolants due to the use of salt water.

«This is a well-known problem of this region, we will work on its solution,» added the chairman.

«Will you keep the situation under control this year? » asked NikVesti journalist Oleh Dereniuha.

«Definitely, definitely,» answered Oleksii Chernyshov.

How the Mykolaiv CHP failed the heating season in 2023

Excavation of Mykolaiv thermal power plant in the center of Mykolaiv, photo from the archive of NikVesti, September 2023.

The 2023-24 heating season in Mykolaiv began on November 14, but Mykolaiv CHP was able to provide heat to residents only at the beginning of December due to numerous accidents on heating networks. The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, believes that the problems with starting heat will only get worse in the coming years.

After the failure of the heating season and statements by Mykolaiv RMA about the need for personnel decisions, an official investigation was launched at the CHP to find the culprits.

As of the evening of November 18, 2023, Mykolaiv CHP connected only half of the total number of its consumers in Mykolaiv to heat. At the same time, in September, the CHP reported that it was 92% ready for the start of the heating season.

Excavation of the CHP plant in the center of Mykolaiv, photo from the archive of NikVesti, November 2023

As of the evening of November 20 , dozens of apartment buildings remained without heating in Mykolaiv. In several districts of the city, repair works of heating networks continued. Then the first deputy of Mykolaiv city mayor Vitalii Lukov announced that they plan to connect all residential buildings of Mykolaiv to heat in a few days.

However, on the evening of November 21 , there were still more than 400 apartment buildings in the city without heating. The Mykolaiv thermal power plant said that delays in the supply of heat to multi-apartment buildings occurred due to large gusts on the main pipelines of the heating lines.

On November 30, the CHP informed that due to emergency works in three more areas of the city, residents will be left without heating again for some time. However, the company immediately announced the good news — according to forecasters, the weather conditions in Mykolaiv are expected to improve.

Numerous gusts of CHP networks are connected, in particular, with the fact that last heating season the enterprise used salty water from the estuary, which accelerates the corrosion of already outdated pipes. In contrast to this, purified water from wells was poured into «Mykolaivvoblteploenergo», which NikVesti wrote in the article «Winter is near: What will the heating season be like in Mykolaiv?». Thus, the start of both heating seasons began without disruptions and significant accidents in the houses served by the regional heat and power utility.

At the same time, the Mykolaiv Thermal Power Plant reported that during the 2023/2024 heating season, water from the estuary will be poured in only in emergency cases. Thus, the networks of the enterprise are filled with salt water by 8%, while last year the systems were filled with estuarine water by 91%.

The section of Mariupolska Street where the CHP refuses to repair the asphalt, photo NikVesti, March 2024

For six months now, Mykolaiv CHPP has not been bringing Mariupolska (Moskovska) Street (from Tsentralnyi Avenue to Chkalova street, where repair work was carried out on heating networks last fall. In Mykolaivska CHPP, they say that it makes no sense to asphalt the excavated sections of the road along Mariupolska Street at the moment, because after several The section of the network from Dunaieva Street to Sevastopolska Street will be partially replaced.

We will remind you that the director of Mykolaiv Thermal Power Plant (TPP) Dmytro Myroshnychenko submitted a declaration on property and income for 2023. During the year, the official earned 2 million 143 thousand 897 hryvnias. On average, the salary of an official was 178 thousand hryvnias per month (about 4.5 thousand US dollars).

In addition, the Mykolaiv District Administrative Court will consider the case based on the lawsuit filed by the journalist of the online media NikVesti against the Mykolaiv Thermal Power Plant (TPP), which refused to provide information about the salaries of the management during 2023.