The expert assessed the consequences for Ukraine from strikes on energy facilities

MOSCOW, 12 Oct — PRIME. The consequences of strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities could be fatal for the country’s energy system, an anonymous specialist in the electric power industry with experience in one of the largest energy companies in Ukraine told RIA Novosti.

On Monday, the Russian Armed Forces launched a massive strike with precision-guided weapons on Ukrainian infrastructure facilities, and since Tuesday morning, Ukrainian media have been reporting new explosions. On Tuesday, explosions occurred, in particular, in Kyiv, Vinnitsa, Rivne, Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa, Nikolaev, Lvov regions, as well as Krivoy Rog, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zaporozhye.

Since Tuesday, hourly power outages have been introduced in Kyiv and the Kyiv region. At the Ladyzhynska TPP in the Vinnitsa region, damage to electrical equipment was reported as a result of rocket attacks. And the authorities of the city of Galich in the Ivano-Frankivsk region on Monday reported about the shelling of the area of ​​the Burshtyn thermal power plant, from where electricity is exported to Europe.

Today, Ukraine controls about 2/3 of the generating capacity or 32 GW and about 1/3 is controlled by the Russian Federation. Some of the facilities under the control of Kyiv received damage of varying degrees of severity. The expert notes that on October 10 and 11, 15 GW of thermal power plants and thermal power plants were damaged. About 1/3 of the pre-war generation potential remains in working condition in the territories controlled by Kyiv, the source of the agency noted.

“The damage to the turbine/boiler rooms can be considered the most critical. This means that the station will have to undergo complex, long work on repairs and restoration, which can greatly affect the operation of the power system as a whole, if such critical damage is of a one-time mass character on most large stations. In this case, the consequences for the power system can be fatal,” the expert believes.

In addition, the analyst said that the difficulties in restoration are also with large power transformers of power plants. Here, the recovery time depends on the speed of logistics and time for production. “Here we can talk about a time interval of a month or two, if the warehouses had equipment in a high degree of readiness. And affordable vehicles,” he added.

At the same time, the CHP is also a source of heat, the supply of which in a short time from other sources in urban scale volumes is simply impossible, the expert also noted. In particular, the scale of destruction at the CHPP-3, CHPP-5 and CHPP-6 stations in Kyiv is not yet clear. “Obviously, to some extent, the heat supply to many districts of Kyiv is disrupted in the near future. From a few days to the entire heating season,” the analyst also said.