Fires at 3 South Ukraine NPP transformers in recent days further aggravate energy system situation - expert

MOSCOW. July 19 (Interfax) - Three transformers burned down at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) over the past few days, adding to the already difficult situation in the country's energy system, Energy Research Center director Alexander Kharchenko said.

"As our colleagues have said, two transformers burned down at the South Ukraine NPP two days ago, apparently due to the heat [...] As I have been told, another power transformer burned down at the same NPP today, and, according to unverified reports, one more at the Chernobyl NPP," Ukrainian media outlets quoted Kharchenko as saying in a statement on social media.

This caused one of the reactors to shut down, disconnecting two or three high-voltage power lines of the Ukrenergo company from the grid, he said.

The first accident significantly complicated the situation in the power system, he said.

"It is this purely technical accident that has extremely severely limited the electricity supply the left bank of Ukraine, including Dnepropetrovsk, Sumy, and so on, for the last two days," Kharchenko said.

The second accident worsened the situation even further, he said, adding that official reports, including from the Energy Ministry, did not contain any mention of that.

"The scorching heat plus constant equipment overload accompanied by networks switching on and off all the time (though they are not designed for this at all) across the country lead to rapid equipment degradation. There will be more and more accidents regardless of the heat (frost will also have a negative impact). Pretending that nothing is happening is the worst strategy," Kharchenko said.

"If the NPPs' distribution devices, which supply power to the grid, break down one by one in the winter, the consequences might be devastating. People need to be informed. People need to be warned. People need to understand the need to prepare for a difficult winter," he said.

According to the Energy Ministry and Ukrenergo, emergency power outages were introduced in the Kharkov, Sumy, Poltava, Dnepropetrovsk and Kirovograd regions and the Kiev-controlled parts of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions following an accident at an energy facility overnight into July 16 and were in place mostly until the morning of July 17. Power supply restrictions were increased to the maximum in other regions, including power outages for four categories of consumers simultaneously throughout the day.