Coal reserves at TPS will last only until mid-November

Coal reserves at thermal power stations will only last until the middle of November as most of mines located in the east of Ukraine do not operate and coal cannot be supplied from the operating mines due to the combat actions, announced Head of the Independent Trade Union of Coal Miners of Ukraine Mykhaylo Volynets.

“There is enough coal approximately until mid-November… The reserves of coal at TPS now amount to around 1.7 mn t. That would be not critical if the mines operated in normal mode,” he informed.

50 mines in Donbas do not produce coal but pump out the water. At that, 18 mines have been flooded, according to the expert.
However, the reduction of coal output of the gas type, which is stored worse and is less suitable for TPS, is not expected. Such type of coal is mined in Lviv, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk and partially Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, said Volynets.

Under the current conditions, Ukraine needs to import over 10 mn t of coal until the end of the heating season 2015.

“We see which oblasts are occupied and know the types of coal we have problems with… There are institutions and specialists who will calculate how much coal we need for balance, its types and prices,” said the head of the union.

As Capital reported, Ukraine started to import coal to cover the shortage of fuel.