How Ukraine’s power system is coping in the face of Russian strikes

On October 14, Maksim Timchenko, the CEO of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private power generator, updated Economichna Pravda on the status of Ukraine’s electrical grid in the face of Russian strikes against the country’s power installations. He also talked about what the company’s future plans are for implementing renewables, despite the Russian attacks. DTEK shared that interview today with Electrek, and we have edited the English translation sent to us below for length and clarity.

Economichna Pravda: Looking at Ukraine’s entire energy system, how much capacity was there before the October 10 strikes in the country, and how much is left now?

Maksim Timchenko: It is important to understand the difference between the capacity that is left and the capacity that is still available. These strikes are not aimed at generating facilities to prevent us from producing electricity but at connection systems tied to the Ukrainian energy system. They hit open switchgears, transformers, switches, so that a station that can produce electricity cannot be connected to the unified power system. That is, the key targets are Ukrenergo transformer high-voltage substations and power distribution equipment at thermal power plants.

What [are] the tactics behind this? Since Soviet times, we have built unified energy systems so that if one of the generation flows fails at some part of the system, another one picks it up. That is, everything is looped and we work in a single system. In Soviet times, a power system scheme was built, where everything is set up for similar events that are happening today.

I think the Russian military [consults] their power engineers and they explain how to cause maximum harm to the energy system.

When Ukrenergo’s 750 kilowatt nodal substations, which connect the regions where the generation facilities are located get hit, then a surplus is obtained in one region, and a deficit in another. They hit these substations. This is exactly what happened on Monday and Tuesday. Yesterday morning [July 13 – EP] they struck to prevent supply of electricity to Kyiv.

Economichna Pravda: How many megawatts or as a percentage of the total number of capacities have been taken down?

Maksim Timchenko: From the point of view of generation, we [have] capacities that are destroyed and those that are occupied. The biggest deprivation of capacity is the seizure of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. Today, 6,000 megawatts are not available. This is the most difficult situation.

Speaking of our thermal power plants: We have lost control over the Uglegorsk [thermal power] station, and the Lugansk, and the Zaporizhzhya thermal power plant, which is next to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station [Editor’s note: It’s the largest nuclear power plant in Europe]. Three thermal power plants and one nuclear power plant are located [in] the temporarily occupied territories and cannot produce electricity for the country.

Second, regarding the power output, the Ladyzhynska [thermal power] station in the Vinnitsa region, which was also hit this week, [is not in operation] today. We are working to put it back into operation. The rest of the thermal power plants are operating.

Economichna Pravda: It is about 10,000 megawatts.