Ukraine's DTEK Group loses 50% of power generating capacity, imposes emergency outages in Krivoi Rog

MOSCOW. March 25 (Interfax) - DTEK Group, Ukraine's largest private energy company, lost half of its generating capacity overnight into March 22, YASNO CEO Sergei Kovalenko said.

"DTEK Group has lost 50% of its generating capacity," Ukrainian media quoted him as saying during a national telethon on Sunday.

On Sunday evening, Kovalenko said on social media that emergency restrictions had been imposed in Krivoi Rog and its district at Ukrenergo's command.

"Currently, the energy system has a reduced capacity and cannot withstand it. Therefore, Ukrenergo gave the command to limit consumption. Colleagues expected to cope only at the expense of businesses, but it was not enough, there is a need to limit the population as well. Power engineers are working to restore the electricity supply as soon as possible," Kovalenko said.

It will take a few more days to assess the timing and cost of restoration, he said.

"From what I know about the same DTEK generating facilities, or some distribution facilities, I can say that the restoration, will take not a day, not a week and not even a month, but months," Kovalenko said.

The generating and distribution parts of the energy system, including grid nodes, transformers, etc., have been damaged, he said.

Kovalenko noted that the current state of facilities for restoration is worse than it was last year.

In his opinion, when summer comes, there may be a physical shortage of electricity due to the lack of generating capacity.