Ukraine experiencing record power shortage because of heat - Ukrenergo

MOSCOW. July 17 (Interfax) - Power engineers have brought equipment that faulted at one of the Ukrainian power infrastructure facilities on Tuesday back into service, which made it possible to stop emergency outages in the regions where they were applied, Ukrainian media reported with reference to the Ukrainian power grid operator Ukrenergo.

However, because of the extremely hot weather expected on Wednesday, power consumption is also expected to be extremely high, and therefore, power supply will be cut to four categories of consumers from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. rather than from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., as was planned previously, and to three categories from 10:00 p.m. to midnight, Ukrenergo said.

Due to the abnormal heat and growing power consumption in Europe, commercial electricity imports to Ukraine have also been reduced. Ukraine plans to import 24,900 MWh of electricity from Romania, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary, with transmission capacity reaching 1,271 MW during certain hours. Ukraine imported 25,900 MWh of electricity on Tuesday.

Ukraine is not exporting and not planning to export electricity anytime soon.

Thunderstorms and wind gusts left 166 communities in the Zakarpattia and Lvov regions fully or partially without electricity on Wednesday morning. Another 493 communities across Ukraine were cut off from power supply for other reasons, including technical faults.

A number of customers also experienced outages for technical reasons prompted by the heat's influence on high-voltage equipment and power transmission lines in the Dnepropetrovsk, Kirovograd, Odessa, and Chernigov regions.