DTEK has lost 50% of generating capacity, repairs will take months – Yasno CEO

The DTEK Group, Ukraine’s largest private energy investor, has lost about half of its generating capacities following a massive Russian attack on the Ukrainian power grid on 22 March.

Source: Serhii Kovalenko, CEO of distribution company Yasno, on the national joint 24/7 newscast on Sunday

Quote: "The DTEK Group has lost 50% of its generating capacity. We can announce this officially."

Details: Kovalenko explained that the attack was dangerous because the Russians hit two parts of Ukraine’s energy system: the generation and distribution systems.

"They hit several types of generating capacities: a large number of thermal power plants were hit, and a hydroelectric generating facility was hit. Secondly, the enemy hit a very large number of Ukrenergo's grid nodes, transformers, etc. This attack has simultaneously destroyed the system's ability to transmit electricity and reduced our generating capabilities," he explained.

Kovalenko said that it will take a few more days to estimate the timeframe for repairs and the funds required.

"This is not going to take a day, a week, or even a month to repair – it will take months," he said.

Kovalenko also admitted that there may be power shortages in the summer, as Ukraine will not be able to generate enough electricity.

Background:

• Ukraine's largest hydroelectric power plant, Dnipro HPP in Zaporizhzhia, was hit in the missile attack on 22 March. Later, it became known that Russian missiles hit Dnipro HPP eight times.  Ukrhydroenergo has not ruled out that the Russians may have intended to destroy the power station completely.
• The company has managed to get some of the equipment up and running at Dnipro HPP, but the plant is not yet generating electricity.
• As a result of the Russian missile attacks on Ukraine's energy system, emergency power outages were reported in a number of oblasts. Ukrenergo subsequently ordered the power to be switched back on for household consumers in all oblasts of Ukraine except Kharkiv, Odesa, Khmelnytskyi and Dnipropetrovsk.
• A thermal power plant and all the transformer substations in Kharkiv were destroyed.
• On 24 March, DTEK announced the introduction of stabilisation outage schedules in Odesa and emergency power outages in Kryvyi Rih.

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