Situation is challenging: Ukraine has lost almost all of its peaking power generation

Ukraine has lost almost all of its peaking power generation due to Russian attacks. Source: Lana Zerkal, a former advisor to Ukraine's energy minister, in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda Details: Zerkal noted that the situation in Ukraine's energy sector is challenging and that the issue is not just about recovering it but actually building a new one.

"We still have basic nuclear generation.

However, we have almost lost everything related to peaking generation," Zerkal said. The recovery of generation hinges on the confidence of companies like DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company, in the safety and effectiveness of the recovery efforts. "All these plants have been fired upon.

Some of them have been hit up to 20 times. Without sufficient air defence and secure airspace, the recovery effort could become endless," Zerkal added.

Background: 

• Ukraine should have started creating decentralised power generation as early as 2022, but no one took the need for it seriously.
• Lana Zerkal said she did not believe that 1GW of gas-powered generation would be completed by the end of the year, as previously announced by President Zelenskyy.
• In the early morning hours of 11 April, the Russians utterly destroyed the Trypillia thermal power plant (TPP) in Kyiv Oblast in a large-scale missile attack.
• The Trypillia TPP provided electricity to almost 3 million people and was the largest electricity supplier in Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Cherkasy oblasts.
• Centrenergo, a major electric and thermal energy-producing company in Ukraine's centre and east, consisted of three thermal power plants: Trypillia TPP in Kyiv Oblast, Zmiivka TPP in Kharkiv Oblast, and Vuhlehirsk TPP in Donetsk Oblast.
• On 22 March 2024, Zmiivka TPP was utterly destroyed. On 25 July 2022, Russian forces occupied Vuhlehirsk TPP.

  This resulted in Centrenergo losing 100% of its power generation.

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