Ukrenergo projects larger electricity shortage throughout Ukraine

MOSCOW. June 3 (Interfax) - Electricity shortage will persist throughout Monday and increase amid higher air temperatures, Ukrainian media quoted NEC Ukrenergo as saying in a statement on social media.

Imports and emergency aid from European countries are being attracted to cover the shortage. However, this is not enough to maintain the balance in the power system due to the scale of the problem, and therefore, Ukrenergo's dispatch center has to limit consumption for production facilities and population. As reported on Sunday, the restrictions are in place for the whole day on Monday for all regions.

At the same time, Ukrenergo CEO Vladimir Kudritsky warned on the Suspilne television channel on Sunday evening that the situation in the Ukrainian power system will be more complicated next week than in the last days of May. The placement of two units of nuclear power plants under scheduled repair since Saturday, and the projected surge in electricity consumption due to the use of air conditioners amid higher air temperatures are behind this.

"The shortage [...] will be back in quite a serious volume," Kudritsky said.

At the same time, he drew attention to the substantial growth in recent days in the electricity imports at night, when the shortage also fails to be covered. Imports rose by a factor of two to two and a half during the night hours, therefore, "the duration of night outages will be somewhat milder," he said.

In total, 27,178 MWh of imports from Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Moldova scheduled for Monday throughout the day set a new all-time high, the NEC said.

Electricity exports have nothing to do with the hourly blackouts, Center for Energy Research director Alexander Kharchenko said in his turn.

"Electricity exports have nothing to do with blackouts. There has been none lately. There can be physical overflows from one region to another across Europe, and damage to the energy system results in this. Therefore, this is sometimes easier to provide electricity to the regions," Ukrainian media quoted him as saying at a press briefing at the Kiev Media Center on Monday.

He added that minor quantities of exports, which were shipped in early May, were based on the solar generation surplus.