Ukraine's energy infrastructure lies in ruins after enemy missile attacks. Some energy facilities have been completely destroyed, and those that are still subject to restoration are undergoing continuous repair work.
However, to resume operation of such facilities, special equipment is needed to replace what was destroyed or severely damaged during shelling. How long will it take to replace lost equipment and how can foreign partners help Ukraine with this?
Ukraine's energy industry is in a catastrophic situation due to Russian missile attacks, which intensified last spring and have not stopped to this day. According to the government, enemy attacks have deprived our country of more than 9 gigawatts of generating capacity.
Thermal power plants suffered the most. As Yuriy Boyko, adviser to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, told Apostrophe in an interview at the end of May, as a result of Russian attacks in Ukraine there was not a single thermal power plant left undamaged or undestroyed. According to him, if previously the share of thermal power was about 30% of all generation, now it barely reaches 5%.
Also, due to the shelling, hydroelectric power stations were severely damaged, including the largest Dnieper hydroelectric station in Ukraine.
Today, the main producer of electricity in the country remains nuclear power plants, which the enemy does not yet dare to attack. However, nuclear power plants, unlike thermal power plants and hydroelectric power plants, are not able to provide flexibility during peak consumption hours, which further complicates the situation with a shortage of generation capacity.
Representatives of the energy industry report that they are carrying out repair work on damaged facilities around the clock, but how long will it take to restore them?
Turbine in a year
An energy facility is, first of all, equipment. If buildings at a power plant are destroyed, walls and windows are damaged, this is unpleasant, but fixable. But if a turbine is destroyed or severely damaged by a missile, this is much more serious.
What exactly was damaged and which power plants were not disclosed.
“This is secret information that only the Ministry of Energy has,” said Apostrophe’s interlocutor working in the energy sector, who decided to remain anonymous.
This is understandable, since such information will instantly be available to the enemy, who will happily attack the newly built power facility.
However, it is obvious that to restore power plants, new equipment is needed, first of all, and its manufacture, delivery and installation takes time.
“The equipment is made to order, it is not stored anywhere,” said Mikhail Gonchar, president of the Strategy XXI Center for Global Studies, in a conversation with the publication.
According to the former Minister of Fuel and Energy of Ukraine Ivan Plachkov, energy equipment is a fairly broad concept that covers approximately 100 thousand items. And the production of each unit requires specific time.
“If it’s a turbine or boiler, then they need to be ordered, and they are manufactured not in a month, not in two, but in at least a year. If we are talking about a pump, then this is three to four months, some other units can be ready in two months,” he told Apostrophe.
Help from partners
Our foreign partners, in particular in the European Union, could help us in restoring the destroyed energy infrastructure.
“But we must have a desire for Europe to help us,” says Ivan Plachkov.
According to him, not only in the EU countries, but also in Japan, South Korea and other countries, there are enterprises that produce the equipment we need: “You just need to order in a timely manner, pay the money, and they will produce - there are no secrets here. You just have to do this work.”
On the other hand, Lithuania and Germany made an offer to Ukraine to share energy equipment from those thermal power plants and thermal power plants that were closed in these countries. Our government has agreed to this, however, what exactly will be handed over to us is unknown. The last time information about this initiative was given was back in April. Let's hope that the lack of new data is due to the already mentioned secrecy and not mismanagement.
“Our Lithuanian and German partners said that they have a number of closed thermal power plants, where some equipment has been preserved, and it is dismantled and delivered here to Ukraine. It's possible that something will work out here. But whether it will be possible to do this before the onset of winter - there is no answer to this question yet,” said Mikhail Gonchar.
We are left with a deficit
Thus, there is a chance for at least partial restoration of power equipment at destroyed power plants.
“But the fact that it will not be restored 100% is a fact,” says Mikhail Gonchar. – In many cases, the damage was such that, as they say, they cannot be restored. Both due to the damage, and due to the fact that it was so outdated that it was already dying if it was built in the 1970s, or even earlier.”
According to him, from a very general point of view, it will take several years to restore the domestic energy sector.
“Therefore, in the four months that remain before the start of the autumn-winter period, the volume of repair and restoration work completed, where possible, will still not cover the deficit (of energy capacity). Therefore, we will enter the winter with a deficit,” the expert concluded.
