Ukrenergo to begin building 3 strategic power lines this year, expects capacity for electricity exports to Europe to increase soon

MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Ukraine's national power grid operator Ukrenergo plans to begin the construction of three strategic power transmission lines and is interested in buying the necessary equipment from domestic manufacturers, Ukrenergo Board Chairman Vladimir Kudritsky said.

"We're beginning to build three strategic power transmission lines this year. And to this end, for instance, we need 100,000 high-voltage insulators. There is a facility in western Ukraine that can manufacture them, although it's not doing that yet. It's under the state's interim management now, but the simple question is: we should launch this production so as to be able to buy insulators from our manufacturer rather than, say, from China," Ukrainian media quoted Kudritsky as saying at a Made in Ukraine forum in Kiev.

Some 85% of products procured by Ukrenergo are manufactured domestically, Kudritsky said. "We could have even 95%-97% of them if Ukrainian factories could produce as much as we need," he said.

Since the start of the crisis, Ukrainian electric equipment manufacturers have considerably increased their output, some of them up to sixfold, and have good chances to expand their presence on the European market, Kudritsky said at the forum.

The National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Utilities on January 10 endorsed Ukrenergo's UAH 4.4-billion investment program for 2024. Over 60% of this amount is to be spent on constructing new power infrastructure facilities. This includes a major new power transmission line, which should help significantly increase the transmission capacity for trading in electricity with Romania and make power supply to the Odessa region more sustainable. Ukrenergo also plans to start operations to enhance the reliability of power transmission systems in northern and western parts of the country.

Ukrenergy expects the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) to raise electricity transmission limits for exporting electricity from Ukraine to Europe in the near future, which would enable Ukraine to export more power, Kudritsky said.

"I'd like to say that I have an intuitive but a very strong anticipation that there might be quite good news regarding our export capacity limits soon," Kudritsky said at the forum.

Ukraine has been increasing electricity exports due to lower consumption lately, Kudritsky said. "We're gradually preparing to switch from winter to spring mode from the energy system's standpoint. There'll be more electricity available for exports," he said.

As reported, ENTSO-E has increased the capacity limit for exporting electricity from Europe into Ukraine and Moldova to 1,700 MW from 1,200 MW since December 1, 2023. The capacity of electricity exports from Ukraine to the ENTSO-E zone in Europe excluding Moldova is 400 MW. There are no limits for Moldova.

Electricity exports from Ukraine to Europe, which were small during the first winter months, have been more substantial since early February, exceeding or being roughly equal to imports for most of this time.