Three Donbas thermal power stations switch into backup mode
KYIV. June 18 (Interfax) - Three Ukrainian thermal power stations - Vuhlehirska (owned by Tsentrenergo), Kurakhovska and Zuyevska (both owned by DTEK Vostokenergo) - have switched into a backup water-supply mode after pumps were damaged on the Seversky Donets-Donbas Canal, said Borys Sorkin, Deputy Director of the Electricity Department at the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry, on Wednesday.
He said one of the canal's pump stations was damaged during a firing attack, which led to water dropping to emergency levels and no longer being supplied to these three power stations.
Besides, there have been difficulties in supplying water to the Slovyansk and Starobeshevska thermal power stations (owned by Donbassenergo), even though they do not use water from the Seversky Donets-Donbas Canal.
To continue operating, the three thermal power stations mentioned earlier are currently using their water reserves which should be enough for 30 days, Sorkin said.
Repairing the damaged pumps on the Seversky Donets-Donbas Canal should take no more than four days but so far there are no conditions for such (repairing) work to be completed, he said.
The official also said about problems in running the Slovyansk thermal power station after nearby railways and several transmission lines were damaged. Since coal supplies were suspended, the Slovyansk station has gone into a minimum-power mode to make it possible to use the current reserves without shutting it down right until the fall-winter heating season begins.
Sorkin also said that 18 towns in the Donetsk and Luhansk are currently without electricity, and 536 transformer substations, 15 35-kilovolt substations, eight 110-kilovolt substations, 17 6-10-kilovolt transmission lines, eleven 35-kilovolt transmission lines and several higher-voltage power lines are shut down.
Earlier the Donbas Water Company said efforts to repair the damaged pump station of the Seversky Donets-Donbas Canal are being hampered by the intense hostilities in the Slovyansk area.