Ukrenergo extends daily power consumption limits for Tuesday
MOSCOW. Jan 31 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian national power grid operator Ukrenergo on Tuesday extended power consumption limits set for the city of Kiev by nearly 4% and for other regions by nearly 3% at daytime and by over 6% at nighttime compared to Monday, as seen from reports from a number of power distribution operators.
Thus, Ukrenergo extended daytime power consumption limits for the second day in a row. It also substantially increased nighttime consumption limits on Tuesday after having slightly reduced them on Monday, Ukrainian media reported.
The DTEK power company said on social media that the duration of power outages in Kiev varied from 4 hours and 50 minutes to 4 hours and 58 minutes a day on January 23-29, which means power was supplied about 77%-80% of the time in the city.
DTEK said scheduled outages were applied evenly among different groups and within them.
Most of local grid operators published hourly outage schedules on Tuesday. The Odessa region will have to continue to resort to emergency outages due to substantial damage caused to the local power supply infrastructure. DTEK said several days ago it anticipated that the repairs would continue at least until the end of January before the region could return to stabilization power supply schedules.
Ukrenergo also warned about possible emergency outages in some regions in view of a trend toward growing power consumption on Tuesday caused by colder temperatures and significant power shortages.
"As of the morning of January 31, consumption was within limits, and the Ukrenergo dispatch center did not resort to emergency outages. However, taking into account the trend toward growing consumption, there is the danger that the limits could be exceeded and restrictions could be applied in some regions," Ukrainian media cited Ukrenergo's statement on its social account.
The operating power plants cannot cover demand for electricity, and several units of thermal power plants have been taken out of service for scheduled repairs over the past 24 hours, it said.