Ukrenergo extends unlimited power consumption on Friday

MOSCOW. Feb 10 (Interfax) - The Ukrenergo electricity transmission system operator allowed unlimited power consumption between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Friday, which is one hour longer than on Thursday, the Ukrainian media said with the reference to distribution network operators.

DTEK said on social media that capacities met 66% of electricity demand in Kiev on Friday, alongside 59% in the Dnepropetrovsk region, which enabled both territories to apply stabilization outage schedules.

In turn, YASNO CEO Sergei Kovalenko said on a social network that electricity companies still had to cut power supply despite the announced absence of blackouts to deal deal with growing consumption.

He gave the example of Kiev, where the limits were sufficient to avoid scheduled power outages from 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. but the load on power grids increased because of bigger consumption.

"Some sections of the grids are not yet able to transmit such high volumes, so we had to resort to blackouts in some areas," he said.

DTEK also said that the situation in Odessa and the Odessa region caused by a high-voltage network accident on February 4 was being fixed and new schedules, which divided consumers into six groups, were being tested.

DTEK warned that schedules might still be disrupted because the situation in the region remained complicated.