Ukraine's DTEK estimates spending on equipment for TPPs at $230 mln

MOSCOW. April 8 (Interfax) - DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko estimates the cost of purchasing equipment to restore most of this Ukrainian company's thermal power plants (TPPs) at $230 million.

"To recover, we need equipment worth $230 million. The lion's share of the amount is the purchase of power transformers," Ukrainian media quoted him as saying in an interview with Forbes Ukraine, noting that the group's restoration costs totaled $126 million last year.

Timchenko noted that 80% of DTEK's thermal power generation facilities have been damaged or destroyed completely as of today.

"All power units have been damaged at two plants, but we will restore part of them. Another plant has been shut down for an unforeseeable period. The goal is to restore maximum capacity. In accordance with our plan, we will expand the capacity by almost four times of the current capacity. The main work will be carried out in April and May, so that we have time to regain the summer maximum," he said.

The fastest way for restoration is to bring equipment from Eastern Europe, where the already closed Soviet-era coal plants are located, he said.

"Our employees have already gone to the Baltic States, Bulgaria, and Romania to negotiate such supplies. The second area is to use idle equipment that is available in Ukraine. We are currently in talks on this with Ukrenergo and Centrenergo. We are also exchanging equipment within the group," Timchenko said.

Timchenko also said that the group had no plans to halt its mines, despite the forced decline in coal consumption.

"We are maintaining our coal production target for this year. Coal consumption by our thermal power plants has fallen five times, but we will gradually raise it. We will simply see the winter with large coal reserves. We have around 20,000 miners. We are not considering the scenario of shutting down the mines. For now, everyone continues to work and receive their salaries," he said.