Ukrenergo continuing to clean up energy incident aftermath in Odessa

MOSCOW. Feb 8 (Interfax) - The effort towards resuming power supply to Odessa and adjacent districts, disrupted by an incident at an Ukrenergo sub-station on Saturday, has helped ease the tight power supply schedules and to supply electricity for two hours after eight hours of a blackout instead of 12, Ukrenergo CEO Vladimir Kudritsky said.

"Electricity problems are being experienced by 300,000 consumers in the areas under restrictions. The number of these consumers remains unchanged. Yet, the schedules have changed a bit from 2/12 to 2/8," Kudritsky told the Ukrainian media on Tuesday.

"Critical infrastructure elements are being connected to generators in Odessa in order to supply more electricity to households and gradually improve the situation," he said.

"Repairs at Ukrenergo facilities are also progressing at a very high pace, people are really working 24/7, and we are working on a sustainable solution for Odessa, for instance, the activation of main facilities to bring the city to normal schedules, just like the rest of Ukraine has," Kudritsky said.

He said earlier that, as of Sunday, about 200,000 out of 500,000 consumers in Odessa and the Odessa region were connected to the power grid, following a sub-station incident on Saturday morning.

In his words, 280,000 to 290,000 consumers have very limited access to electricity: there are two hours of power supply followed by 12 hours of a blackout.

Kudritsky added that the situation would drastically improve by the end of the working week thanks to the ongoing measures.