Ukraine aims at piling up 3.2 million tons of coal in TPP storage facilities by October 1 / Photo from UNIAN
As Ukraine experiences an acute shortage of anthracite coal because of Donbas hostilities, the country plans to stock up more coal in September-October by increasing supplies from Russia, CIS countries, as well as from the Donbas conflict areas, according to Ukraine’s Energy Minister.
"At the moment, coal reserves are 1.2 million tons. Of course this is not enough. The next two months - 10 days of August, September and October – is the period when it is allowed and necessary to bring in coal from all directions," Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said at a closed meeting of an energy crisis management headquarters on August 20, the Ministry’s press service reported on Tuesday.
According to the minister, Ukraine plans to save up 3.2 million tons of coal in storage facilities of thermal power plants, by October 1.
Demchyshyn also noted that there is nearly 400,000 tons of G-grade coal in the Pavlogradugol mines, controlled by DTEK [owned by Rinat Akhmetov], and recently the take-out of this stock has accelerated.
"Compared to the average volume of 650 railway per day, they [UNIAN] started taking out 750-780," the minister said.
In addition, according to Demchyshyn, the state company Centrenergo agreed on the coal supplies from Russia and other countries.
"Centrenergo has agreed on the supply of coal by sea scheduled for late September – early October. The first batch from Kuzbass [Russia] is being shipped now. These railway cars are expected to arrive at the stations [TPPs] before August end," said the minister.
UNIAN memo. In December, 2014, Ukraine experienced rolling blackouts associated with a deficit of coal of in TPP storages due to the Donbas hostilities, where most of the mines are located. To avoid further blackouts, Ukraine decided on temporary imports of Russian electricity.
Ukraine’s power grid was also extremely loaded this summer. In August, 2015, due to abnormal heatwave and scheduled maintenance of several nuclear power units, Ukraine resumed Russian electricity imports in order to avoid rolling blackouts.
In August 14, 2015, Kyivoblenergo utility company reported that it was forced to introduce scheduled power outages within the region upon the order of the Central Energy System Manager, due to the capacity shortage. At the same time, Ukrenergo has told UNIAN that no special instructions had been given to Kyivoblenergo, but did not exclude the possibility that the company may use scheduled power outages.
On August 24, Ukraine suspended electricity purchases in Russia.