Outage schedules in Ukraine to be applied round the clock on Thursday

MOSCOW. July 11 (Interfax) - Hour-by-hour power outage schedules in Ukraine will be applied for the whole day on Thursday, July 11, Ukrainian media reported with reference to the DTEK power holding's post on its social account.

"The city of Kiev and the Odessa and the Dnepropetrovsk regions: a high probability of applying light gray outage zones throughout the whole day," DTEK said.

The national power grid operator Ukrenergo said power supply would be cut simultaneously to four categories of consumers from 4:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and to three categories during the other time slots.

"The reason [behind the power consumption limitations] is the considerable growth in consumption due to the abnormal heat in Ukraine and Europe amid a severe shortage of electricity in the system," UKrenergo said.

Average daily temperatures in Ukraine are currently above +30 degrees Celsius, and Ukrenergo's dispatch center anticipates the electricity consumption peak on Thursday to be 7% higher than the identical figure recorded on Wednesday.

To reduce the power shortage in the grid, Ukrenergo applied for emergency supplies from Poland's and Slovakia's power systems from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. on July 10.

A total of 510 communities across Ukraine remained without electricity as of the morning of July 11, it said.

Adverse weather prompted outages in the Sumy region, and a number of customers were cut off from power supply for technical reasons, such as the heat's influence on high-voltage equipment and transmission lines, in the Rovno, Dnepropetrovsk, and Sumy regions.

Ukraine plans to import a total of 28,487 MWh of electricity on a commercial basis from Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Moldova, with transmission capacity reaching 1,444 MW during certain hours, Ukrenergo said.