Ukrainians have been facing problems with electricity shortages and increasing blackout schedules for months. Ukrenergo and the Ministry of Energy say the main reasons were Russian strikes, repairs to power facilities and hot weather, which increases electricity use. However, at the same time as the lights are turned off in the homes of Ukrainians, electricity is exported to other countries.
According to the website of the European Network of Electricity Transmission System Operators, on July 17, Ukraine transferred 7 GW of electricity to Romania. Since the beginning of July, Ukraine has been supplying this country almost every day; in addition, on some days, electricity can be transmitted simultaneously to four countries: Slovakia, Hungary and Moldova are added to Romania.
The Ministry of Energy denies that Ukraine exports electricity to other countries and calls such information “hostile IPSO.” Ukrenergo shares the same opinion. The head of the company, Vladimir Kudritsky, said that Ukraine does not export electricity, but transits it to other countries without using its own resources.
Kudritsky also named the main factors influencing the power outage. According to him, the main damage was caused by Russian strikes. Another reason was the high temperature, which increases the use of electricity and also reduces the capacity of other countries from which Ukraine could import it. In addition, the electricity shortage was affected by the repair of energy facilities, including nuclear ones. Ukrainians were repeatedly informed that nuclear units would be put into operation in July, which would improve the situation with blackouts.
On July 17, the Ministry of Energy announced that they had repaired one of the nuclear power plant units ahead of schedule and connected it to the network, which should affect the stability of the energy system. In addition, a thunderstorm passed through the country, which reduced the heat, and as a result, electricity consumption.
However, instead of improvements and increases in the duration of the period with light for Ukrainians, on July 18, in particular in Kyiv, DTEK published new schedules for stabilization power outages, where it increased the periods of power outages.
