17 Jan 2023 12:47

Power supply to Kiev was maintained 'close to limit' on Monday - YASNO power supply company

MOSCOW. Jan 17 (Interfax) - Power supply to Kiev on Monday was maintained close to a limit of 974 MW set previously, while Kiev in fact needs 1,600 MW a day, Sergei Kovalenko, head of the YASNO power supply company, said on social media.

"Today, 974 MW of the necessary 1,600 MW was supplied to Kiev. Supply was maintained close to the limit, with power cut off in all gray zones. The situation continues to be complicated, and restrictions now are the only chance not to make things even worse," Ukrainian media quoted Kovalenko as saying.

Considerable damage caused to generating units of thermal power plants is the key reason for outages, he said.

"Nuclear power generation is currently not adequate as the Zaporozhye NPP is not supplying power to the grid. And there's no way to compensate for this shortage [...] However, thermal power plants have also been damaged now. Therefore, we're trying to use hydropower plants," he said.

Kovalenko said a day before that, following January 14, the power grid was experiencing a huge shortage of generation, which would inevitably prompt lengthy emergency outages.