War forces DTEK energy company to reactivate mothballed power units
DTEK Energo is removing TPP units from conservation to increase the available generation capacity, announced the company's CEO Ildar Saleev.
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"At the end of last year – the beginning of this year, we decommissioned one unit, which we had not done for a long time. And if it were not for the war, we probably would not have done it again. This allowed an additional unit to be brought into the power system during the winter. And for this year, there are plans to de-conserve another unit," he said.
Saleev explained that these blocks were idle for technical reasons, and now they are being reconstructed. This affected the increase in the cost of planned repair works of the TPP from UAH 2.2 billion ($59.6 million) last year to UAH 3.5 billion ($94.8 million) this year, because reconstruction and de-conservation were not done in 2022.
The reactivation of these units will add more than 500 MW to the energy system, emphasized the head of DTEK Energo.
In March 2023, DTEK assessed damages from Russian attacks on power plants. At that time, the amount was close to UAH 6 billion ($162.4 million). In total, in 2023, the company planned to repair 28 TPP units.
On May 15, as a result of an attack by the Russian military, one of the company's thermal power plants was once again damaged. On May 19, one of the DTEK power plants stopped due to strikes.
In 2022, 26 power units were repaired at DTEK's thermal power plants. Investments in last year's campaign amounted to almost UAH 2.2 billion ($59.6 million).
On May 26, 2023, Ukrenergo reported that the energy system had lost a total of 27 GW of capacity since the start of Russia's war against Ukraine in 2014.
Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Research Center, believes that only 20% of energy facilities will be restored by the next heating season, but even this will be enough.
NPC Ukrenergo has requested that Ukrainians refrain from using air conditioners after 4:00 p.m. due to insufficient generating capacity.
