By the end of the week, most regions of Ukraine will experience three rounds of hourly power outages. Under such conditions, the duration of the power outage for consumers may reach up to 12 hours a day. This was announced by Ukrenergo Chairman Vitaliy Zaychenko during a telethon.
According to him, it is difficult to predict the situation in advance, because the power system is under attacks from the Russian Federation every day. However, as of today, dispatchers are counting on working according to the schedules of three shifts. In some regions, outages may be less long, but in some regions the load on the network remains critical.
Zaichenko recalled that on December 9, emergency shutdowns had to be applied in Kharkiv, Sumy, and Poltava regions. The reason was another Russian attack on the energy infrastructure of Sumy region, after which part of the energy system needed to be urgently balanced. As a result, emergency schedules spread to other regions of the country.
The key factor, according to the head of Ukrenergo, was the coincidence of unfavorable circumstances: an emergency shutdown of generation and the exhaustion of hydroelectric power plants' capabilities to support production volumes. This forced the dispatch center to apply emergency shutdowns to prevent a large-scale disruption of the power system.
Zaichenko stressed that schedules will become more predictable only after the situation stabilizes and some of the damaged energy facilities are restored. For now, Ukrainians are advised to prepare for a difficult consumption regime in the coming days.
