Russia batters Ukraine grid with shellings on two more power plants

January 16, 2023 Editor

Timchenko on Ukraine's power grid — Battered power plants. Courtesy DTEK.

Russian shelling has caused further disruption on Ukraine’s power grid as two more thermal power plants were hit on January 14.

Since 10 October 2022, DTEK facilities have been hit by over 170 attacks by missiles, kamikaze drones and rockets.

This latest attack saw missiles hit two DTEK thermal plants, damaging the equipment and further disrupting power supply for the battered country, which has been experiencing rolling power outages due to the war with Russia.

Although these latest attacks had no casualties on the sites, they were part of a larger barrage of missiles across the country, which killed at least 14 people, according to Al Jazeerah reportage.

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According to the Ukrainian utility, this marks the 26th terrorist attack on DTEK energy facilities. Immediately after the end of the attack, power workers began repair and engineers are working on restoring the equipment as soon as possible.

To date, Russian attacks have damaged more than 11,000 pieces of DTEK’s thermal power plants’ equipment and 5-6 million people in the country are affected by resulting widespread blackouts.

Two days after the attack, DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko joined the Atlantic Council’s discussion “Europe in Crisis: The path forward” at the 2023 Forum. The focus of the meeting was on the challenges of managing energy security and decarbonisation efforts, including the increasing effect of the war in Ukraine on the energy transition process.

Timchenko attended the summit alongside H.E. Ditte Juul Jørgensen (director general for energy, European Commission), Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt (assistant secretary of state for energy resources, US Department of State) Luis Cabra (executive managing director, energy transition, technology, institutional affairs, and deputy CEO, Repsol), Ben Wilson (chief strategy & external affairs officer, National Grid) and Anatol Feygin (executive vice president and chief commercial officer, Cheniere Energy). Courtesy DTEK.

Timchenko commented on the energy crisis and how it is different when considering the perspectives of Ukrainians and Europeans. For Europeans, he stated, “this crisis is reflected in households’ bills and the cost of electricity.

“For Ukrainians, it is about the number of hours they have electricity supply or the number of hours they have to spend in a bomb shelter. In fact, it’s all about the energy war that started many years ago with the blackmailing of gas prices. For years we have warned that Putin is weaponising energy and now we are all in this reality.”

Despite war conditions, DTEK has resumed renewable electricity supply from Tryfonivska, a Ukraine-reclaimed solar power plant. It is gradually resuming electricity, providing energy for settlements in the Kherson region.

Timchenko added how DTEK’s energy sector forms a part of the EU and, as such, should be seen as an investment in the overall continent’s energy security. “We first connected the Ukrainian grids to the European grid system in March 2022, so our energy sector is already a part of the EU.

“All future investments in Ukraine’s energy sector should be considered as part of European energy security. Moreover, Ukraine has huge potential in developing renewable energy, meaning we can play a significant role in the European green transition.”