Nearly 400 communities across Ukraine cut from power supply due to bad weather

MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax) - Adverse weather conditions, including heavy rain, wet snow, and strong wind, have disrupted power supply to 397 communities in 16 regions of Ukraine, particularly the Khmelnitsky region, as of the morning of December 17.

"Repair teams belonging to regional power operators are working to eliminate the effects of bad weather. The customers having no electricity should be reconnected to the grid by the end of the day," Ukrainian media quoted the national power grid operator Ukrenergo as saying.

Apart from the weather factor, the easing of restrictions has also affected the level of power consumption in Ukraine in the past few days, Ukrenergo said.

Warmer weather caused power consumption to slightly decline on Tuesday compared to Monday.

"As of 6:00 a.m. today, on December 17, its level was 2% down from that recorded at this time on Monday, which is due to higher air temperature in most of the Ukrainian regions," it said.

At the same time, the easing of restrictions prompted daily consumption on December 16 to grow 5.5% compared to the consumption peak recorded on the previous working day, December 13, it said.

"No measures restricting power consumption are planned for today. We point out at the same time that there is still a considerable shortage of capacity" in the system, it said.

Ukraine plans to import 20,903 MW/h of electricity from Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and Moldova on December 17, its maximum capacity reaching 1,151 MW during certain hours, Ukrenergo said.