Ukrenergo does not expect electricity shortage on Monday

MOSCOW. Jan 22 (Interfax) - The dispatch center of the Ukrainian national power grid operator Ukrenergo does not expect a power shortage in the system on Monday, even though consumption on Monday morning was 3.9% higher than on the morning of last Friday, Ukrainian media have reported.

Ukrenergo attributed the absence of a power shortage to warmer weather forecasted for the entire Ukrainian territory on Monday.

At the same time, considering that the general level of consumption remained typically high for a winter season, Ukrenergo called for economic use of electricity as a measure helping the power industry maintain stable supply.

Three thermal power plant units are to begin operations in line with the schedule on Monday, it said.

Media have reported that a thermal power plant unit has been restarted following minor repairs, and more power generating assets are on standby mode and may be hooked up to the grid if necessary.

Energy imports into Ukraine grew by 14% on Monday compared to Sunday, with a total of 6,595 MW/h of electricity supplied from Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Moldova. Ukraine has not exported electricity for over two weeks.

A number of customers in the Chernigov region and in the Kiev-controlled part of the Zaporozhye region have been cut off from power because of technical faults.

Another 373 communities have no electricity for other reasons.

The Energy Ministry said there have been no outages due to adverse weather lately.

At the same time, because of emergencies and technical faults in gas supply lines, gas supply has been cut temporarily to over 400 customers in four regions. In particular, 71 single-family homes are currently cut from gas supply in the Dnepropetrovsk region, 140 in the Zakarpattia region, and 182 in the Kharkov region. In addition, gas supply to 16 customers has been disrupted in Zhitomir because of an ingress of water into the gas supply system.