Ukrenergo restores 70% of facilities damaged by Russian military

Following a challenging winter that inflicted significant damage on the Ukrainian energy system, Ukrenergo has made remarkable progress in its recovery efforts. As things stand approximately 70% of the damaged facilities have already been restored, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the company's chairman, said in an interview with Forbes.

"We quickly eliminated impairments to the main grid and restored functionality to about 70% of our damaged facilities. This does not mean that they are now operating in the same condition as before the full-scale invasion, but the power transmission system is working," Kudrytskyi said.

According to him, the energy system survived 15 missile and 18 drone attacks from October 2022 to March 2023. The Russians launched more than 1,200 missiles and drones at energy facilities, with 250 hits affecting Ukrenergo substations.

"We temporarily lost about 40-50% of the capacity our system had before the invasion. As for the main high-voltage network and Ukrenergo facilities, as a result of the massive terrorist campaign by the Russians against our energy system, about 43% of our assets were damaged by missiles or drones," Kudrytskyi noted.

According to the report of the government of Ukraine, the group of the World Bank, the European Commission and the United Nations (RDNA2), the full estimate for the recovery of the country is $11 billion. The entire energy industry will need $5.7 billion in the coming years. Ukrenergo itself, according to the experts who worked on the report, already now needs approximately $1 billion to restore and protect the facilities, Kudrytskyi clarified.

"In any case, before winter, we need an amount that is calculated in billions – both for generation and for our substations. Therefore, during the next few months, we need to accumulate a significant financial resource," he added.

Ukrenergo received loans and grants in the amount of about 900 million euros from international financial organizations and the governments of EU countries. The main donors are the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the World Bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB), the German State Development Bank (KfW), USAID, and UNDP.

"The key for us is how quickly factories in different parts of the world will be able to produce the equipment we need," Kudrytskyi emphasized.

On May 16, Ukrenergo called for saving electricity as many power units are under repair.

On May 17, all possible reserves were put into operation in the power system so that there would be no power outages in the evenings.

On May 18, Ukrenergo announced that there will be no fan outages in the summer in Ukraine. The deficit will be covered by imports.

On Friday, Ukrenergo reported that the energy system had lost a total of 27 GW of capacity since the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine in 2014.

Following a challenging winter that inflicted significant damage on the Ukrainian energy system, Ukrenergo has made remarkable progress in its recovery efforts. According to Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the company's chairman, approximately 70% of the damaged facilities have already been restored