Ukrenergo extends power consumption limits for Tuesday
MOSCOW. Feb 7 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian national power grid operator Ukrenergo extended the power consumption limit in the Dnepropetrovsk region by 20% on Tuesday compared to Monday, the DTEK energy holding said.
Ukrainian media have reported with reference to DTEK's statement on its social account that the daytime limit for Kiev has been tightened by 0.4% and that for the Kiev region extended by 2.3%. The company anticipates that Kiev, the Kiev region, and the Dnepropetrovsk region will receive electricity according to stabilizing schedules on Tuesday.
Sources on the electricity market suggested that the significant extension of the power consumption limit for the Dnepropetrovsk region might be explained by electricity imports by industrial enterprises. Ukrenergo and the Energy Ministry have said on numerous occasions that electricity imports by businesses could allow for supplying more electricity to households. As reported earlier, Ukraine received 53,791 MW/h of electricity from Slovakia in the first five days of February and about 60,000 MW/h in January. Electricity is imported by D. Trading and some other companies.
At the same time, Ukrenergo has recorded growing consumption prompted by a cold spell.
"According to weather forecasts, this week will be cold, and therefore, the load on the power grids will increase. Colleagues will most likely have to apply lengthier outages. Even though power generation has increased, its consumption is also growing because of the cold weather. In addition, Ukrenergo's transmission restrictions prevent the system from operating properly," Ukrainian media quoted Sergei Kovalenko, head of the YASNO power supply company, as saying on his social account.
Snow and low temperatures might also cause new disruptions on power grids, and consumers should exercise caution while using electric appliances, Kovalenko said.
As reported earlier, no power consumption limits were set for the regions at nighttime on Monday, February 6. At daytime, emergency outages were applied in Kiev and the Kiev region because of transmission restrictions and in the Odessa region because of an accident at an Ukrenergo facility on Saturday, which cut power supply to the city of Odessa and the adjacent areas. Over the past 24 hours, engineers restored power supply to 200,000 out of the 500,000 affected customers, and they received electricity based on the 2/10 schedule. Ukrenergo expects to improve the situation by the end of the working week.