Ukraine workers in race to repair power grid

• Published date: 12 April 2024
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

It will take well over a year and hundreds of millions of euro to fix all the damage and replace destroyed facilities, leaving energy firms racing to be ready for the freezing months of next winter, and their workers facing a daunting task knowing that a repeat attack could endanger them and reduce their vital repairs to rubble at any moment

“This is probably the first time since the beginning of the full-scale war when the Russians have managed to destroy and damage so many facilities in one or two attacks,” says Dmytro Sakharuk, executive director of Ukraine’s biggest private energy firm, Dtek, which lost 80 per cent of its generating capacity in the March strikes. Moscow’s military has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s power grid since launching its full invasion in February 2022, but the recent attacks were particularly intense and precise and may have exploited the country’s lack of air defence ammunition at a time when Republicans have blocked US aid to the country for several months.

Largest power plant In the latest attacks on Wednesday night, Russia destroyed Kyiv’s largest power plant, the Trypilska thermal power station 50km south of the city. The plant provided electricity to millions of people in Kyiv, Cherkasy and Zhytomyr regions. Ukraine’s energy ministry also said two facilities in the south had been targeted in Russian strikes, causing power outages in two regions.

The recent Russian bombardment targeted thermal and hydroelectric power plants, crucial parts of the electricity distribution network and even solar facilities. Five of Dtek’s six power stations were damaged or destroyed, depriving Ukraine of what Sakharuk describes as “a lot” of its overall electricity output. He will not be more specific, because energy production is a sensitive wartime subject that could affect the work of everything from hospitals to ammunition factories.

Reports say Dtek facilities meet about a quarter of Ukraine’s energy needs. Three nuclear power plants on Kyiv-controlled territory supply most of the country’s electricity, even as an atomic station in Zaporizhzhia – the biggest in Europe – remains under Russian occupation.

“The destruction was significant . . . We still do not understand the scale of damage as many facilities are still in rubble and we can’t reach them,” Ukrainian energy minister Herman Halushchenko told Bloomberg. “Today the situation is even more complicated, compared with last year, as we have lost a lot of hydropower production and have...