Ukraine can get through winter without power cuts – Ukraine's energy minister

Ukraine can endure the winter of 2024-2025 without power outages if the Russians do not succeed in destroying the critical energy infrastructure that survived the previous attacks.

Source: Ukraine's Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko at a forum hosted by Forbes

Details: A recent UN report estimated the likely duration of winter blackouts to be between 4 and 18 hours a day.

"We summoned their [UN] representatives to find out where these estimates came from. It turned out that they had no real arguments," says Halushchenko.

The minister noted that blackouts in winter may be caused by emergency repairs, though they will not be systemic.

The most reliable means of protecting energy facilities, Halushchenko emphasises, is air defence.

Ukraine will receive equipment for distributed power generation with a total capacity exceeding 1 GW by the end of the year. However, it will not be able to install all of it by the end of 2024.

Background:

• Ukraine can endure the winter without blackouts at temperatures of zero degrees Celsius and above.
• Ukrenergo, Ukraine's electricity transmission system operator, regards the scenario of a catastrophe caused by a lack of electricity in winter as pessimistic, but winter will not be easy.
• Generation deficits and blackouts are inevitable, and in the best-case scenario, there will be no electricity for up to 5 hours a day.

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