Hourly power cuts to take place in Kiev and 8 regions of Ukraine on Tuesday

MOSCOW. Nov 15 (Interfax) - Scheduled hourly power cuts will be used in Kiev on Tuesday, but there will be no emergency blackouts, Sergei Kovalenko, head of the YASNO company, which supplies electricity to the Ukrainian capital, said.

"There will be scheduled [power cuts] in the city. Preliminary curbs allow that," Ukrainian media outlets quoted Kovalenko as saying on social media last night.

Despite considerable expectations, the situation with power cuts in Kiev remains virtually unchanged, he said, adding at the same time that the periods of blackouts have become shorter.

"Pursuant to Ukrenergo's directives, there were power cuts of 257MW [approximately one-fifth of consumption] in Kiev. Blackouts as part of stabilizing schedules affected 952,418 customers, but for shorter periods of time than previously. It is a positive development, albeit a minor one," Kovalenko said.

At the same time, one should not expect scheduled power cuts to be terminated, including because air temperatures have decreased, he said.

"The winter is near, the load on power lines is growing, and we need to be prepared that this winter will be challenging. [Power] consumption across the country grows by 10% when outdoor temperatures fall by 5-7 degrees Celsius," he said.

DTEK Group executive director Dmitry Sakharuk, for his part, said that the situation in Kiev, the Kiev region and a number of other regions remains complicated because a key energy facility in these regions has been damaged. Therefore, the cancellation of electricity use curbs should not be expected.

"Stabilizing power cuts will continue in order to enable the system to function in the same mode as it is doing today," Sakharuk said.

Meanwhile, Ukrenergo, the operator of Ukraine's high-voltage power lines, plans to use scheduled hourly power cuts in Kiev and another eight regions of Ukraine almost throughout the day on Tuesday, November 15.

"There will be scheduled power cuts in Kiev and the Kiev, Chernigov, Cherkassy, Zhitomir, Sumy, Kharkov, Poltava, and Donetsk regions from midnight to 1:00 a.m. and from 5:00 a.m. till midnight," Ukrainian media outlets quoted the company as saying on social media.

Scheduled blackouts are not being planned for other regions of the country.

As reported, the situation with power supplies to Ukraine's central and northern regions remains most tense now.