Ukrainians were advised to prepare for permanent power outages for several years

Blackout / Photo for illustration

The situation in Ukraine's power system is not critical at the moment, but due to a significant power deficit after a series of massive attacks by the Russian Federation, Ukrainians need to get used to constant hourly power outages for a long period.

Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Research Center, told about this at the briefing.

«Currently, the general situation is a lack of generating capacity in the system, but all we can do is to get used to perceiving this (power supply restrictions, — note) as a normal state of affairs for a long time,» said the expert.

According to him, in the next two years, it is necessary to strengthen the energy system as much as possible in order to «restore generation to a situation where there will be no restrictions at all» in the next three years.

«Before that, we live in a regime of restrictions for 4-6 hours during the day throughout the country, and for Kyiv this period is 6-8 hours during the day. Outages will not be daily, it will depend on a large number of parameters, including weather conditions,» Oleksandr Kharchenko clarified.

According to his forecast, the most difficult months will be July and the first two decades of August, when there will be a maximum need for electricity for cooling systems, in particular for industry, including food.

Oleksandr Kharchenko explained that electricity costs will increase, and at the same time, the repair campaign will continue as a necessary element of preparation for the heating season.

«The worst scenario for the winter, in my understanding, is limiting consumers from 6 to 10 hours a day, but at the same time critical infrastructure is working, in particular, key defense enterprises. I would say that we are in for a moderately difficult winter. More complicated than the last one, but more predictable and comfortable than the penultimate one,»  expressed the opinion of the director of the Energy Research Center.

Kharchenko explained that the duration of restrictions in Kyiv is longer than in other regions due to the large amount of critical infrastructure in the capital, which is fed as a matter of priority, so less resource from the allocated limits remains for all other consumers.

Earlier, the director of the Energy Research Center Oleksandr Kharchenko already emphasized that even if certain damage to the generation is eliminated, Ukrainians will live with a shortage of electricity for the next two years.