Electricity consumption in Ukraine continues to grow during peak hours - Ukrenergo

MOSCOW. Aug 16 (Interfax) - A spell of hot weather in Ukraine caused the maximum level of electricity consumption to increase by 3% in the evening of Tuesday, August 15, versus Monday, August 14 - a figure that is equal to the amount of electricity produced by two power units, the Ukrenergo power grid operator said.

"The simultaneous switching-on of tens of thousands of air conditioners puts a serious strain on the energy system, because the possibility of using additional capacity is limited due to large-scale repairs under way at a large number of power plants," Ukrainian media outlets quoted Ukrenergo as saying in a statement on social media.

One unit of a power plant has been reconnected to the grid after emergency repairs, restoring power supply to all affected consumers in the Lvov region, the company said.

Power supply has also been restored in full to 23,000 consumers in Rovno, who were previously left without electricity due to technical problems in the operations of the equipment at a 330kV electrical substation in the Rovno region. Consumers began receiving electricity within 20 minutes after the substation was reconnected to the grid, Ukrenergo said.

A total of 401 towns and villages in Ukraine remain without electricity, and power lines in the Kharkov region have sustained fresh damage, it said.

Data available on the ENTSO-E website shows that electricity imports to Ukraine dropped 41% to 3,471 MWh on Wednesday. Ukraine imports electricity in the morning and in the evening from Moldova and Slovakia - 1,018 MWh and 2,453 MWh, respectively. Ukraine imported electricity from Poland for the past few days, but is not doing so today.

As reported, the maximum level of electricity consumption in Ukraine increased by 7% on August 14 versus August 13, which was a Sunday, and by 2.4% as compared to the previous workday on August 11.