Photo from UNIAN
Ukraine’s energy giant DTEK owned by the country’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov reported that on August 01, at 00:50 Kyiv time, Dniprovska Thermal power plant (TPP) halted its last operating power block due to the lack of coal reserves, which Ukraine’s Energy Minister linked with the attempts to create a stir in the energy sphere, according to the 112 Ukraine TV channel.
"A lot of strange things have already happened this week. Considering that four nuclear power units were on planned repair, which is a lot, another unit also came under unscheduled repairs. That is to say, 5,000 MW, not just 300MW, but 5,000MW were not available in the system. In addition, for some reason (we have sent our experts to check) three units that are operated by DTEK were disconnected: Zaporizhia (two units with 300MW capacity each) and Ladyzhenska. So, there is a lot of coincidences…" the minister said.
According to Demchyshyn, DTEK has everything it needs to meet its commitments to consumers.
He also said that in the near future Oschadbank is to disburse the additional UAH 2 billion to the energy companies for the purchase of coal.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on July 27, Demchyshyn reported that the Ukrainian energy sector had been facing difficulties in the last few days.
"In a two-day period, about 2.5GW [of the generating capacities] were disabled," said Demchyshyn.
In this regard, the minister said, the Russian Federation began deliveries of nearly 900 MW of electric power to Ukraine, under the contracts on parallel operation of the two countries’ energy systems.
On July 31,Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced a state of crisis in Ukraine’s energy sector, criticizing the work of the Energy Ministry.
UNIAN memo. Ukraine began to experience an acute shortage of thermal coal in the summer of 2014, as a result of completely losing control over part of Donbas (where most coalmines were located) due to the figthing with the Russian proxies.
About 50% of Ukraine’s electric power is nuclear-generated, while the rest is produced by thermal power plants operating on natural gas and coal, as well as by the hydroelectric power plants and with the use of "green" energy.
In 2014, Ukraine imported coal and anthracite worth $1.773 billion.