News | Headlines Ukraine is ‘winning the energy war’ Ukraine Update


Speaking at a press conference on 12 April Maxim Timchenko, the chief executive of Ukraine’s largest energy company DTEK, claimed victory in what he called the “winter battle of our energy war with the Russians”. Despite relentless missile attacks, Ukraine has kept lights on, resumed exporting power to Europe and restarted work on its first windfarm.


DTEK reports that in the past few months more than 1200 missiles and drones were fired at key energy facilities in Ukraine, more than 250 of them hitting the target; all the country’s thermal and hydroelectric power plants were shelled and suffered various degrees of damage; 43% of power lines have


been damaged; and several cities suffered power outages that lasted up to 5 days in a row. The company has suffered damage to 1502 items of power generating equipment and 10 297 items of distribution equipment. The estimated loss to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure amounts to over $10 billion, the largest proportion falling on the electric power sector – almost $6.5 billion. But the greatest loss, emphasised by Mr Timchenko, is the lives of innocent Ukrainian citizens killed because of missiles falling in residential areas


Recovery


DTEK reports that 80% of damaged power grids have been repaired, that ‘more than


enough’ lighting and heating has been restored. Mr Timchenko also confirmed that by 11 April Ukraine had resumed exporting electricity to the rest of Europe, and that between October and March, DTEK Grids restored electricity to 3.2 million families in the Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.


In Kyiv alone, 198 teams worked daily to bring power back online.


And construction of Ukraine’s first wind farm has been resumed. The 500 MW Tyligulska windfarm is being built in collaboration with Vestas. Construction started last year, but was forced to stop during the winter. However work recommenced in March with the installation of 19 Vestas 6 MW turbines.


Zaporizhzhya is ‘living on borrowed time…’– IAEA Ukraine nuclear power


The dependence of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) on a single still functioning power line for the external electricity it needs poses a major risk to nuclear safety and security amid signs of continued military activity in the southern region, director general Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on 13 April in the IAEA’s Update 153. Underlining the crucial need for an agreement to protect Europe’s largest nuclear power plant during the military conflict, Mr Grossi noted that IAEA experts present at the site continue to regularly hear shelling in the area. Near the plant itself, two landmine explosions occurred outside its perimeter fence, the first on 8 April, and another four days later. It was not immediately clear what caused the blasts. “We are living on borrowed time when it comes to nuclear safety and security at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. Unless we take action to protect the plant, our luck will sooner or later run out, with potentially severe consequences for human health and the environment,” Mr Grossi said. Pressing ahead with his efforts to


strengthen nuclear safety and security at the ZNPP, he held talks with senior Russian officials including Rosatom director general Alexey Likhachev in Kaliningrad during the week beginning 3 April. In late March, Mr Grossi met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in the city of Zaporizhzhya, ahead of his second visit to the ZNPP since the military conflict began. Crossing the frontline to and from the site on 29 March, the DG could see for himself new indications of increased military activity compared with the situation during his previous visit on 1 September last year. “At a time of growing speculation about military offensives and counter-offensives in the region, it is more important than ever to agree that a nuclear power plant should never be attacked, nor used to launch attacks from. I will not rest until this has been achieved,” he said.


For the past six weeks, the ZNPP has relied on a single 750 kV power line for reactor cooling and other essential nuclear safety and security functions. A back-up power 330 kV power line that was damaged on 1 March on the other side of the Dnipro River from the Russian-controlled ZNPP has still


not been repaired, with Ukraine saying that military action is preventing its experts from safely accessing the location situated in territory it controls.


If the connection to the 750 kV line is also cut when there is no back-up external electricity available, as happened most recently for 11 hours on 9 March, the ZNPP and its six reactors are forced to rely on emergency diesel generators for power – an unacceptable situation for nuclear safety and security, Mr Grossi said.


The nearby Zaporizhzhya Thermal Power Plant operates the 330 kV open switchyard, through which back-up power has been provided to the ZNPP. The ZTPP also operates the pumping stations which feed cooling water from the Kakhovska Reservoir to the NPP. The Russian Federation reported last month that Rosatom was working to restore three 330 kV lines to the grid system in currently Russian-controlled territory. Rosatom has agreed to provide access for the IAEA team, which was expected to take place during the week beginning 16 April. At the plant itself, the operator was planning to transition during that same week one of two reactors currently in hot shutdown to a cold shutdown state, due to the warmer weather.


The two reactors now in hot shutdown have been used to provide steam and heating to the ZNPP as well as heating to the nearby city of Enerhodar, where many plant personnel live. Reactor unit 5 will remain in hot shutdown to produce hot water and steam for the site. Also because of the spring weather, some of the nine mobile boilers that were installed to provide extra heating during the winter have been switched off, and the remaining units will be turned off soon.


4 | April 2023 | www.modernpowersystems.com


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