By KYIV. Dec 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukrainian power grid remained integral and did not suffer large-scale damages during Russia’s new massive missile attack on December 5 thanks to a set of measures taken to protect it, Director at the Energy Industry Research Center Oleksandr Kharchenko has said.
"The missile attack on December 5 was average in scale as compared to the previous ones. Seventy missiles is a lot, however, the air defense system, some additional physical protection systems that have been installed at many facilities, as well as certain engineering solutions applied in the energy systems successfully coped with them and specific scenarios were worked out," he said during a press briefing at the Ukraine Media Center in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The set of measures helped to prevent "nationwide-scale troubles," the expert said.
"The power engineers are happy that all of these measures helped to support the system and it remained integral," Kharchenko said.
At the same time, he noted that serious damage was caused to the power grid in certain districts, however, most of them were not that serious and their restoration is possible.
"Today, almost 90% of consumers, who faced emergency power outages on December 5, have been connected to the system. In general, the total power generation shortage is estimated at 17-20%, that is why power outage schedules are still applied," Kharchenko said.
He also said that this shortage can be explained by network restrictions on power output of energy companies.
The most technically difficult situation is still in Kyiv and Kharkiv regions, as well as Odesa.
"Obviously, Kherson is out of competition at all. Restoration works continue there, but attacks on the local infrastructure continue every two hours. The Russian terrorists deliberately continue to destroy facilities, and emergency crews also came under fire," the expert said.
He also emphasized that Russian power engineers, without a doubt, control shelling of the Ukrainian energy system as long as they are very much familiar with its composition and operation, since it had been a part of a common power grid with Russia and Belarus until February 24.
"Russian power engineers show on the map: here is a control room and you should hit it. And they know in person people who are sitting in this control rooms. They used to communicate while coordination the operation of the power grids. I sincerely hope that most of Russian power engineers will find themselves in The Hague for what they are doing," Kharchenko said.
He also stressed that Ukrainian power engineers also know very well what is going on in the Russian and Belarusian power grids, and how it is organized.
