No power shortage in Ukraine, problems recorded in some regions - Ukrenergo
MOSCOW. Jan 26 (Interfax) - Power consumption in Ukraine continues to decrease gradually as due to warm weather, and no shortage in the system is expected, Ukrainian media have reported with reference to the national power grid operator Ukrenergo's statement on its social account.
Consumption on Friday morning was roughly at the same level it was on Thursday morning. However, the overall level of consumption remains high, and therefore, Ukrenergo called for using electricity economically.
Two thermal power plant units have been stopped for emergency and scheduled maintenance over the past 24 hours.
On the other hand, the Energy Ministry said one thermal power plant unit was in standby mode and could be hooked up to the grid if necessary.
Ukraine has not exported electricity for a relatively long period of time. It is expected to import electricity from Slovakia, Poland, Romania, and Moldova throughout Friday except for night hours, its amount is to total 4,772 MW/h, which is 17% less than on Thursday.
Equipment failure disrupted power supply to an Ukrenergo facility and several facilities belonging to the regional power operator in the Kharkov region, leaving over 16,500 customers without electricity, Ukrenergo said.
The Energy Ministry said while reporting on the situation in the Kharkov region that 110 kV overhead power transmission lines were switched off, disrupting power supply to the Kharkov regional power operator's and Ukrainian Railway's line and substation and leaving about 33,000 private customers and some local industry consumers without electricity.
Ukrenergo also reported problems in the Sumy region, where over 40,000 customers were cut off from power supply because of equipment faults. All of them were supplied with electricity using backup circuits on Friday morning, Ukrenergo said.
Ukrenergo said adverse weather disrupted power supply to one community in the Chernigov region, and the Energy Ministry reported that 2,200 customers in 16 communities in the Khmelnitsky region had no electricity because of weather.
Outages caused by technical faults have also been reported in the Kiev, Poltava, and Sumy regions.
In all, 358 communities nationwide had no power supply for various reasons on Friday morning.