Repairing damaged energy infrastructure in Ukraine to take time - Ukrenergo head

MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax) - Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities damaged on Monday will be repaired within a day or two, Ukrenergo power grid operator CEO Vladimir Kudritsky said.

"Freezing temperatures will peak today and tomorrow. But the situation is under control. The power grid keeps operating as an integral system, together with the European one," Ukrainian media quoted Kudritsky as saying during the national 24/7 telethon in the early hours of Tuesday.

"Significant damage was inflicted both on power plants and substations, which are elements of the grid," he said.

There will be power shortages on Monday and Tuesday as certain power units which had to conduct emergency shutdowns pick up capacity again, he said.

"We need a day or two to bring power generation in the system back to normal. We expect the situation to stabilize after that, and we will gradually return to normal operations as far as it is possible in such conditions," Kudritsky said.

When commenting on the situation in Odessa, which is facing a complete blackout, Kudritsky said that the first power supplies to the city will be made via backup circuits. The priority is to restore power supplies to critical infrastructure.

"We will generally resolve this problem within the next couple of days," he said.

Ukrenergo is gradually replacing emergency blackouts with power consumption curbs, Kudritsky said.

The DTEK Energo company, in turn, had to disconnect one of its enterprises from the power grid because of damage, Ukrainian media said.

"A power enterprise of DTEK Energo was damaged. Due to that, it was disconnected from the energy system," DTEK said on social media in the early hours of Tuesday, according to Ukrainian media outlets.

The temporary shutdown of the enterprise has limited electricity and heat supplies in the region, it said.

Energy facilities in the Kiev, Odessa and Vinnitsa regions were damaged on Monday, Ukrainian media said.