Power Grids Repaired, Emergency Power Outages in Zhytomyr Region

Repairment of electricity supplies is still ongoing in the Zhytomyr region, in northern Ukraine, as repeated Russian attacks have dealt significant damage to energy infrastructure, Ukraine’s state energy operator Ukrenerho said Friday.

Limits for energy consumption are still in force in the Zhytomyr region only, with repair work being complicated by the threat of possible shelling of repair crews.

Russia started targeting Ukrainian power plants and other energy infrastructure with missiles in October 2022, which led to widespread rolling blackouts.

Since February, however, there has been no electricity shortage in Ukraine due to a combination of factors, including the load of all nuclear power plants, warm weather, flooding on the Dnipro River, and imports from Europe.

Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko warned yesterday of possible short-term outages in the Zhytomyr region due to Russia's targeting energy infrastructure.

However, energy consumption throughout Ukraine has significantly decreased compared to a week earlier due to much warmer weather, Ukrenerho said in a statement.

In addition, all types of power plants, including hydroelectric power plants, are operating in Ukraine, with electricity generation sufficient to cover consumption.

The amount of available generation capacity "increases the operational security of the power system and allows for repairs at some power plants," Ukrenerho assured.