Ukrhydroenergo not accumulating enough water for winter

MOSCOW. Aug 10 (Interfax) - Ukrhydroenergo does not currently have the capacity to accumulate sufficient volumes of water by the beginning of the heating period due to the high load on power generation at present, Ukrainian media quoted Bogdan Sukhetsky, the company's deputy commercial operations manager, as saying at discussion on preparations for the autumn-winter season 2023-24 on Thursday.

"Water is fuel for us... How did we do it before? We accumulated water and when we entered the beginning of the autumn period, we gave quite a lot of help to the energy system, while thermal generation was unstable and there was such a need. But now we are pouring quite a lot of water away," he said.

Sukhetsky said Ukrhydroenergo was currently operating at the limit of its water resources.

"I won't give specific figures, but Ukrenergo is 20%, 30%, 40% above the schedule that we provide. And this does not enable us to maneuver and leave ourselves some room to come back later and support the energy system," he said.

In addition the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plant disaster has taken its toll on the operations of the Dnieper hydroelectric power plant cascade.

"We should not forget that the situation with the Kakhovskaya reservoir has also completely unbalanced the system of our cascades, because everything was calibrated for the operation of reservoirs from the Kiev reservoir to the very bottom along the Dnieper," Sukhetsky said.