The heat wave could trigger power outages again: Will blackouts return this summer?
9 May 11:19
Power outages for residential customers this summer are possible in the event of deteriorating weather conditions or massive Russian missile attacks. However, Ukraine has a chance to get through the summer season with minimal outages, energy expert Gennady Ryabtsev said in a comment to UNIAN, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
“Power outages are not planned, but they are possible if various factors coincide. For example, another massive attack combined with bad weather… By the way, last month the emergency protection system on power equipment was triggered once, and the month before that twice, leading to the implementation of emergency power-off schedules in several regions,” the expert noted.
According to Ryabtsev, the scheduled maintenance campaign at nuclear power plants, provided there are no new hostile attacks on the energy sector, should also not lead to widespread blackouts. He explained that nuclear power plant units will be taken offline one by one for maintenance, but the capacity remaining in the grid will most likely be sufficient to avoid restricting the population even during hot weather.
“It is calculated so that nuclear generation capacity does not drop below 4 GW at any given moment. That will be enough,” the expert noted.
Ryabtsev added that in April, Ukraine exported over 30,000 MWh of electricity.
Watch us on YouTube: important topics – without censorship
At the same time, in the event of hot or cloudy weather in the summer, power restriction schedules for industry may be periodically implemented. The expert noted:
“In hot weather, we will have a stable deficit—about half a gigawatt. This deficit may arise depending on the situation, and it will need to be covered somehow. For example, bad weather, the sun goes behind the clouds—and a deficit arises. So we’ll have to look for a solution. Either through imports or by implementing power restriction schedules for industrial consumers.”
At the same time, he considers it unlikely that the scenario of summer 2024 will repeat itself, when, due to the consequences of attacks and high electricity consumption, Ukrainians were left without power for up to 10 hours a day.
Power Outages
Although Ukrenergo has not issued orders to restrict electricity supply to households and industry for quite some time, power outage schedules are not going to become a thing of the past anytime soon. Alexander Kharchenko, Director of the Center for Energy Research, predicts that even if the shelling stops, Ukrainians will still face scheduled power outages during certain months of the year for the next 2–3 years.
Moreover, Russia continues to systematically target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving residents of certain regions temporarily without power.
Read us on Telegram: important topics – without censorship
