By KYIV. May 4 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine will have to import about 1 GW of power during the summer consumption peak, as well as put into operation additional units of gas-fired thermal power plants (TPPs) in order to cover the power shortage arising from NPPs going into repair, says Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Industry Research Center.
“I am sure that without very significant efforts, we most likely will not avoid power outages in the second half of July and August. Unfortunately, the time for the repair of nuclear power plants during the flood, which lasts from February and will end in three to four weeks, has been missed. At a time when Ukrhydroenergo was able to supply Ukrainians with electricity, the nuclear units were not taken out for repairs, and will eventually be taken out in the summer. This means that the summer peak of consumption, and this happens in July and August for sure, has practically nothing to be covered with,” Kharchenko said during a briefing at the Media Center in Kyiv on Thursday.
According to him, there will be a significant shortage of generation in Ukraine, and it will be possible to cover it with imports in fairly significant volumes, as well as with the launch of gas-fired thermal power plants.
“All the capacity that is available to us for import, and this is 1 GW, will have to be fully used. But preliminary calculations show that this will not be enough, and it will be necessary to launch power units that can operate only on gas,” the director of the Energy Industry Research Center emphasized.
At the same time, he pointed out that in the case of imports, “electricity will be expensive,” and in the case of additional capacities running on gas, the issue of accumulating this resource for the next autumn-winter period becomes more difficult.
“The general estimate of additional volumes of gas to pass the summer peak and then the autumn-winter period is about 2 billion cubic meters. Own gas is definitely not enough for these volumes,” Kharchenko said.
At the same time, he noted that by the beginning of the heating season, high-voltage grids “will be in good condition, work is being carried out very actively there, although not everything is as we would like ideally.”
As reported, the market assumes that five out of nine nuclear power units available to Ukraine will be repaired in the summer.
