Situation in Ukrainian power system to be harder this week - Ukrenergo head

MOSCOW. June 17 (Interfax) - The situation in Ukraine's power sector will be considerably harder during the week starting on June 17 compared to the previous one, Vladimir Kudritsky, CEO of the national power grid operator Ukrenergo, said in an interview.

"The next week will be more difficult for the power system, because heat will return, and we'll have lower capacity of our NPPs compared to the current week," Ukrainian media quoted Kurdritsky as telling Ukrainska Pravda newspaper a few days ago.

The power system has become less resilient and more vulnerable to sharp fluctuations in power consumption and weather and has to be balanced through cutting power supply to some customers, Kudritsky said.

"Having lost over 9 GW of its capacity, our power system is operating without any safety margin. We used to have extra power plants that could be promptly put into operation, and we had the chance to cover [power shortage] by switching on some hydropower facilities or thermal power generating units, but now we simply don't have this room for maneuver," Kudritsky said.

As reported, the Ukrainian nuclear power plant operator Energoatom announced that a 1000 MW nuclear power generation unit was to be stopped as part of a 2024 scheduled maintenance campaign, warning that, combined with increased power consumption in July, this might increase electricity shortage in the national power grid.

Prime Minister Denis Shmygal has said power saving would be a routine element of Ukraine's everyday life within years to come.