Photo from UNIAN
Their power rates differ drastically.
Ukrainian Member of Parliament Oleksandr Dubinskyi says the Cabinet is going to reduce nuclear fuel purchases, as it has no plans to bring the country's nuclear power plants (NPPs) to standard capacities and relaunch their power units since shifting from low-cost NPP-generated electricity to more expensive power generated by thermal power plants (TPP) is beneficial to Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.
Read alsoNuclear power plants in Ukraine may start mining crypto
"Ukraine's acting Minister of Energy and Environmental Policy Olha Buslavets says that shutting down several gigawatts in our nuclear industry with cheaper electricity is temporary. But this is a lie. In fact, no one is going to bring the capacities back to the previous level. It was at this point that one should pay attention yesterday when a document with Buslavets' energy proposals was published. But everyone drew attention only to her idea of mining cryptocurrencies using Ukraine's cheap energy," he said, as reported by dubinsky.pro on May 6.
Dubinskyi is convinced that the government's plans to switch from low-cost electricity generated by NPPs to power that is more expensive are meant to please one particular oligarch, namely owner of the DTEK energy holding Rinat Akhmetov.
The difference in power rates is considerable: UAH 0.56 (US$0.02) per kW generated at NPPs; UAH 1.65 (US$0.06) at TPPs; and UAH 4.8 (US$0.17) at environmentally friendly renewable energy facilities.
"And what does our new [acting] energy minister say? 'Well, we cannot afford to generate too much cheap nuclear electricity. Let's disconnect consumers from low-cost power and use it for cryptocurrency mining.' Not to waste it. Something like that," the MP said.
Dubinskyi is convinced that Buslavets, after having come up with such ideas, should be dismissed. If Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal fails to do that, he should resign as well.
As UNIAN reported, experts consider a halt to Ukrainian NPPs' power units to be subversive activity by the prime minister and the acting energy minister, as their decisions had deprived the country of its capacities generating cheap nuclear electricity amid the coronavirus crisis and made it boost the consumption of expensive power generated by Akhmetov's solar plants and TPPs.