Ukrenergo points at high load on power grid

MOSCOW. July 21 (Interfax) - Ukrenergo has recorded a 7% decrease in power consumption in the evening of July 20, attributing it to a drop in air temperature, but load on the power grid is still high in the evening, the company said on social media, according to Ukrainian news outlets.

The Ukrainian power grid operator notes that consumption peaks currently occur in evening hours, when solar power plants are off work, and the power grid needs to use more thermal and hydroelectric power capacity, while the number of thermal and hydropower plants is limited, Ukrenergo said.

It is exactly in the evening hours from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., when shortages are highly probable, that electricity is imported from Slovakia, totally up to 340 megawatts, the company said. According to figures published on the ENTSO-E website, 1,835 megawatts per hour should be provided, which is by 20% more than the figure seen on Thursday. Export is at the zero level, it said.

According to Ukrenergo, capital equipment at one of the substations has bene restored. "This has raised the reliability of power supply for hundreds of thousands of consumers based in a regional center and some parts of the [relevant] region," it said.

For technical reasons, 384 residential areas remain without electricity. Some parts of the grid in the Odesa region and in Kiev-controlled parts of the Donetsk region have been damaged.

Bad weather conditions resulted in power outages in 75 residential communities in five Ukrainian regions, including Zakarpatye, Zhitomir, Kiev, Cherkassy, and Sumy, Ukrenergo said.