Ukraine's NPP unit put into operation - Ukrainian Energy Ministry

MOSCOW. June 14 (Interfax) - The Energoatom state-owned nuclear power enterprise has put one of the VVER-1000 nuclear power plant units into operation after scheduled repairs, Ukrainian media reported on Wednesday, citing a statement of the Energy Ministry on social media.

"We managed to perform and complete the repairs of one of the NPP units 20 days [ahead of schedule]. It will add the required 1,000 MW of capacity to the power system to strengthen its resilience," Energy Minister German Galushchenko said.

He noted that putting the nuclear power unit into operation earlier than scheduled is especially important amid the drop in the country's hydropower generation due to the disaster at the Kakhovka Hydropower Plant (HPP).

Recording and cleanup of the aftermath of the flood that occurred due to the disaster at the Kakhovka HPP is ongoing in the south of the country. Five populated localities in the Nikolayev region are fully blacked out and another five are partially de-powered due to the flooding. Over 14,000 consumers remain without electricity in Kherson, and six populated localities in the Kiev-controlled part of the Kherson region are de-energized due to the flooding.

"Power engineers are working to restore power supply to consumers. In total, 180 subscribers, who were de-energized due to the flooding, were powered in Kherson, and over 700 subscribers in the Nikolayev region," the ministry said.

The repair teams began repair work at the coastal pumping station of the Kherson thermal power plant, which was flooded.

There are power outages in a number of regions, in particular, in the Sumy and Kharkov regions. Technological violations resulted in the blackout of consumers in the Odessa and Kirovograd regions, the Energy Ministry said.

The Ukrainian media cited Ukrenergo as saying that in the early hours of June 14, over 3,500 consumers in the Sumy region were de-energized.

The resumption of fair weather made it possible to step up the production of electricity at the solar power plants, the company said.

"Other power units at the thermal and nuclear power plants are undergoing repairs instead of those that have resumed operation. Therefore, the request to shift the use of powerful equipment from the evening hours to the nighttime and daytime to reduce the load on the energy system and facilitate its balance remains relevant," the national energy company said addressing consumers.

Ukrenergo noted that there are plans to import about 10-90 MW of electricity from Slovakia on June 14, with no imports or exports during the evening hours of peak consumption.