Last week, two “tough” bids by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief on energy were carried out. The questions were different and often unpleasant - the process of preparing for the heating season was neither simple nor cheap for anyone. Some coped better, others worse, but for objective reasons (too much suffered last winter), while others did not cope, and have no objective justification for this. But as always.
Of course, we are talking about the state energy generating company Centerenergo (CE) (state share - 78%).
Over the decades, the company has turned into a familiar feeding ground for successive government-aligned business groups and nomadic individuals of all shades of the rainbow.
The basic scheme is simple: fuel and spare parts are supplied to the station (expensively), electricity is collected (cheaply). Debts accumulate and then hang around. There are more complex combinations, but the result is always the same: for counterparties - profits, for Centrenergo - losses. As a result, the company's assets, to put it mildly, are significantly worn out, and the process of its bankruptcy has been dragging on for a decade and has become quite boring.
Information a la "Naftogaz" brought out a claim for almost three billion hryvnia by one of the three thermal power plants "Centrenergo" does not even cause a shadow of surprise. I rolled it out and rolled it out, not for the first time, but there was still nothing to take there, even by a court decision.
Over the past three years, the CE has had seven leaders. The next one started work in August.
The State Property Fund, which “rules” the company on behalf of the state, has clearly and colorfully shown that it also does not know how to manage it. This is also not a discovery, of course, but another touch to the portrait of one “effective manager” who recently moved from the State Property Fund to the Ministry of Defense... He was probably glad that the Central Executive Committee was already someone’s headache.
Alas, this explosive mixture of corruption, lack of control and chronic unprofitability is one of the important elements of our energy system.
And the element has no money for a long time.
Before the invasion, they wanted to sell the company once again (either the tenth or the fifteenth). All of it (together with the producing mines) was valued at as much as 6 billion UAH. Less than the cost of one power unit (out of a couple of dozen listed on it), but no one else offered it.
For 2022, losses amounted to more than UAH 7 billion (more than the estimated value of the company as a business). The first half of 2023 added more disadvantages. In general, everything is usual...
But there is a big war outside the window and the energy system urgently needs CE stations.
Last summer, after weeks of fighting, the orcs captured the company’s main station - the Donetsk Uglegorsk thermal power plant. Usually it provides up to 45% of the production of CE. Two other thermal power plants were hit - there were more than a dozen of them before spring.
The Trypilska thermal power plant near Kyiv was knocked out of the network for three weeks in December. Rockets were also regularly flying at the Kharkov Zmievskaya Thermal Power Plant from the nearby border (hundreds of kilometers away). In total, by April alone, according to the company’s generation, there were 32 arrivals.
Arrivals were arriving, but the work was limited not by them, but by fuel. At a certain point, there was only one block left to operate per station, and even those on conditionally free “Naftogaz” gas (it is very difficult to believe that the Central Electricity Commission will pay for it).
All this was still somewhat delayed in the summer, but a difficult winter lies ahead. The Zmievskaya TPP plays an important role in the energy supply of the Slobozhanshchina, as does the Trypillya thermal power plant in the Kiev region. By operating two units at each station, the CE is dooming these regions to problems in the winter. And it’s not so easy to squeeze out more.
The cheerful statements of officials that at each station they would launch four units (including one on gas), and maybe five and produce more than 1,640 MW of power, immediately aroused skepticism.
Coal is still downright lousy. The warehouses at the stations are not even a quarter full of what is needed. Ideally, to operate six blocks in this mode for the winter (more precisely, October-March), about 1.7 million tons of coal are needed.
Where can I get it from? At first they talked about our mines, but no one was eager to work with CE. At state mines, coal production has fallen by more than half, and the rest are not very willing to sell on credit. CE's reputation as a borrower is below par. Nobody wants to sort out who is “Kolomoisky” to whom and end up at the end of the queue for debt repayment.
The new management of the “promisers” cut up to 1190 MW, including gas. In addition, some of the units will run on a mixture of coal (70%) and Kremenchug fuel oil. It’s good that at least we have plenty of fuel oil.
They plan to purchase coal from Poland; it is more expensive, but more stable. They promised to contract the first shipments by October. Something will still be thrown in from the mines of Donbass. According to calculations, a minimum of 80 thousand tons per month is required.
All this requires money. There were great hopes for the government program “5-7-9”, they say, let’s give them loans as beneficiaries. But it’s already September, and everything is frozen. And they were going to give the loan on conditions that were simply inhuman for the CE - it would have to be returned! No one at Centerenergo will do this.
