Electricity exports may be increased by building new interstate power transmission lines - Ukrenergo
MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - The capacity to increase Ukrainian electricity supplies to Europe is limited and further significant increase in exports is possible only by building new interstate power transmission lines, Director for Management of the Ukrainian Unified Energy System and Chief Dispatcher of NEC Ukrenergo Vitaly Zaichenko said.
"There cannot be such a permanent increase in exports, for example, 550 MW, 750 MW, 950 MW, and such goals cannot be set. Such goals can be achieved only by building a new grid," Ukrainian media quoted him as saying at the Ukrainian Energy Security Dialogue event organized by DIXI Group on Wednesday.
Ukrainian power engineers together with their European counterparts from neighboring countries are currently working out various options for possible technical expansion of export and import flows, but all these options require time and proper financing, Zaichenko said.
"We offer options to our Polish, Slovak and Romanian colleagues for new grid construction, but this is not a one-year process. It is a process for at least three years to build a new interstate power transmission line once there is enough funding," Zaichenko said.
He noted that the maximum possible limit of electricity exports from Ukraine and Moldova to European countries is currently 550 MW.
Ukraine can also export electricity via the Dobrotvirskaya TPP - Zamosc transmission line to Poland with the volume of 265 MW and to Moldova with the volume of 650 MW.
"The value of available exports is also quite high, but it does not cover the surpluses of solar generation, which we may have, for example, in the spring and fall periods. This means that it will not be possible to provide the entire volume of 'sun' [solar energy] to our neighbors, and we need to work on it," Zaichenko added.
For his part, Ukrenergo CEO Vladimir Kudritsky said that electricity exports to Europe could become an important profit-making business, so Ukrainian energy companies should work on increasing export potential.
"The potential of electricity trade between Ukraine and Europe, the potential of our export revenue is measured in billions of hryvni. And if we continue to export in such volumes as we do today, it will be a substantial item of Ukrainian exports to Europe," the media quoted him as saying during a national telethon on Wednesday.
Ukrenergo said that on March 6, electricity is being exported during the day to Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Moldova with a total volume of 13,316 MWh, with a peak capacity of up to 723 MW in some hours.
Electricity is being imported in the evening hours from Slovakia and Romania with a total volume of 41 MWh, with a peak capacity of up to 27 MW in some hours. From December 1, 2023, the technical possibility of importing electricity from Europe to Ukraine and Moldova is 1,700 MW.