Bad weather causes power outages in half of Ukraine - Ukrenergo

MOSCOW. March 29 (Interfax) - The ongoing bad weather in Ukraine has caused power outages in the Zhitomir, Vinnitsa, Khmelnitsky, Chernovtsy, Kiev, Chernigov, Cherkassy, Nikolayev, Odesa, Kirovograd, Dnepropetrovsk and Sumy regions, the Ukrainian media said with the reference to Ukrenergo.

Electricity limits are growing in the Zhitomir region because of the mounting consumption and substantial damage done to the networks, the company said.

Growing consumption may also cause electricity limits in Kiev and the Kiev region.

The Ukrainian Energy Ministry said on social media on Wednesday morning that over 31,000 consumers in the Kiev region, 5,000 in the Chernigov region, 3,700 in the Cherkassy region, 3,200 in the Khmelnitsky region, and 2,500 in the Odessa and Nikolayev regions each were suffering power outage.

The ministry said that repairmen were fixing the damage and restoring power supply.

According to the network distribution operator, DTEK Kiev Regional Grids, bad weather has damaged 62 6-10kV transmission lines and over 1,000 transformer substations in the Kiev region.

The company said that power supply had been cut to almost 60 populated localities or over 30,000 consumers, first and foremost, in the Vyshgorod, Kiev-Svyatoshin and Vasilkov energy hubs. The repairs are being done by 108 teams.

The Energy Ministry said, for its part, that power supply had almost fully been restored in the weather-stricken Khmelnitsky, Ternopol, Rovno, Volyn, Lvov, Ivano-Frankovsk, Chernovtsy and Transcarpathian regions.

On the whole, Ukrenergo said that enough electricity was generated to meet the demand. Consumption, which increased amid cooler weather, was mostly compensated by increased output of nuclear power plants and other types of generation. The power grid has sufficient capacity reserves, Ukrenergo said.