DTEK Kiev Grids plans to restore over 800 power facilities, 100 km of power lines

MOSCOW. April 4 (Interfax) - DTEK Kiev Grids, an operator of the electricity distribution system, expects to repair and upgrade 832 power facilities, including 12 high-voltage substations and 100 kilometers of overhead and cable lines, in preparation for the autumn-winter period in 2023-2024, CEO Denis Bondar said.

"We have to perform a full audit of our equipment. We need to repair the destroyed facilities and create an emergency reserve, which will enable us to successfully go through the next winter, which will probably be no less difficult than the last one. There may be new restrictions due to the wear and tear on the networks that emerged during this autumn-winter period," Ukrainian media quoted Bondar as saying at a press conference in Kiev on Tuesday.

All of the required rehabilitation measures are planned to be undertaken at the expense of the investment program worth about UAH 750 million, he said.

"Through regrouping of equipment, the development of new schemes and the use of repaired equipment, we will fulfill all the scope of work for this year. The investment program was approved in December. The amount of funds under the program is UAH 750 million, approximately at the level of last year," he said.

Additionally, the company is receiving international humanitarian aid, in particular, cable products and circuit breakers.

Summing up the results of the last winter, Bondar noted that in the preparations to it the company managed to retrofit 727 power facilities, including 11 high-voltage substations, and 126 kilometers of power transmission lines, which helped ensure the power supply of Kiev.

He noted that during the autumn-winter period the company managed to align the schedules of hourly outages of consumers, which had been applied for 124 days out of 180 days of the heating season. DTEK Kiev Grids also ensured the operation of its information resources, despite the fact that the number of requests, in particular to the call center, as of early 2023, increased 2.5-fold to 1.8 million, while the number of chat-bot users rose fivefold to 758,000.

Bondar emphasized that the number of breakdowns on the networks went up by one third to 5,100 in 2022.

DTEK Kiev Grids serves 1.2 million household customers and 29,000 business customers in Kiev, with 1,712 employees.