Ukrenergo not planning rolling blackouts for population

MOSCOW. Nov 2 (Interfax) - Ukrenergo sees no reason yet for introducing rolling blackouts for the population, the company was quoted by the Ukrainian media as stating on social media.

"The drop in air temperature at the beginning of next week will indeed predictably lead to more electricity consumption. But whether this requires blackouts (in particular, for individual consumers) can only be forecast by Ukrenergo which has not presented any forecast for restrictive measures to date," the statement said.

Ukrenergo, along with the Energy Ministry, regional military administrations and energy companies, are doing all they can for blackouts to be unnecessary for now, it said.

Hourly blackouts could begin as early as next week because of a considerable drop in air temperatures, an independent member of the Centrenergo supervisory board, Vladimir Velichko, told Ukrainian reporters earlier.

This assumption is Velichko's personal opinion, Centrenergo said.

Rolling blackouts for the population are introduced after exhausting other grid balancing measures such as internal reserves, import, emergency aid and rolling blackouts for industrial facilities.