Ukrenergo: It is not possible to restore all energy facilities damaged by enemy attacks before winter

Switching off electric power. Illustrative photo.

Energy workers will not have time to restore all energy facilities before the start of the heating season.

Yuri Boyko, a member of the supervisory board of Ukrenergo, announced this at the forum «The Future of Ukrainian Energy. Dialogues with NV».

«It is quite obvious that it will not be possible to fully restore what was damaged or destroyed before the heating period,» he said.

He said that large companies, such as Ukrtransgaz, Ukrnafta, and Naftogaz, were instructed to create an energy miracle and build the maximum possible amount of shunting generation already, relatively speaking, by this winter, using their internal resources, using a shorter route to donors.

«The key problem here is timing. Each process has its own time, its own duration,» Yurii Boiko emphasized.

According to the power engineer at many stations that suffered numerous damages, part of the equipment was able to be put back into operation.

«For some objects, I still cannot explain from a rational point of view how the equipment works there, because at many stations that have suffered numerous injuries, some of the equipment has already been put back into operation. From an engineering point of view, I cannot explain how this was achieved. I can only state. In order for the consumer to feel the results of the work of energy workers, the key is, of course, protection. We can only hope that our partners will listen and significantly strengthen our anti-aircraft and anti-missile defenses, which will allow us to preserve the results of the work of energy workers,» he added.

Shelling of the energy sector in the spring of 2024

Russia carried out the first massive shelling of energy infrastructure facilities this year on March 22. The Russian army attacked Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih, Khmelnytskyi, Poltava Oblast, Vinnytsia Oblast, Lviv Oblast, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Mykolaiv Oblast, Odesa, and other regions of Ukraine.

The biggest was the attack on the Dnipro hydroelectric power plant (HPP) in Zaporizhzhia. This is one of the largest and most powerful hydraulic structures in Ukraine. A rocket attack on the Dnipro HPP resulted in damage to two stations and a dam that are part of its structure.

Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Research Center, says that by winter, Ukraine needs to restore at least 25-30% of the damaged heat generation: «We need to fully involve imports. Also, before winter, we need to restore as much as possible from coal generation, from hydro generation and build facilities in gas generation as much as possible.»

At the same time, according to the Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko, it is impractical to make any predictions about the difficulty of the next winter for Ukraine's energy industry. In his opinion, now no one will be able to say with which generation Ukraine will end up in the winter: «Actually, everything looks comforting, because the system, despite the Russian strikes, is intact.»

The BBC predicts that Ukrainians can spend up to 20 hours a day without electricity or heating in winter.

In addition, on the night of June 22, the Russians launched missile attacks on critical infrastructure facilities in various regions of Ukraine. As a result of anti-aircraft combat, 25 aerial targets were shot down, but energy facilities in Zaporizhzhia and Lviv regions were still damaged. Also, as a result of an enemy attack on one of the objects, two energy workers were injured.