Crimean nights without lights. Ukraine has limited the supply of electricity to the peninsula

Photo: Unian

In conditions of an emergency situation in the power sector, which has led to the shortage of electricity, yesterday Ukraine decided to limit the supplies of electricity to Crimea. The generation of electricity on the peninsula cannot cover the demand of the occupied territory. This winter Crimea’s problems with energy supply may only escalate.

Within the limit

Yesterday the Ukrinterenergo state-run foreign trade company (SFTC) limited the supply of electricity to Crimea. The state enterprise decided to reduce the flow of power from the power system in mainland Ukraine to the Crimean grid according to the following limited schedule: during the morning (from 8:00 to 10:00 Kyiv time) and in the evening (from 18:00 to 22:00 Kyiv time) maximum loads up to 300 MW; during the day – up to 500 MW and at night (from 23:00 to 6:00 Kyiv time) up to 600 MW.

Ukrinterenergo explains its decision by insufficient volumes of fuel in thermal power plants and the shortage of water resources (low water content in the rivers on which hydro-electric power plants (HPPs) are located), which led to the threat of an imbalance between the generation and consumption of electricity.

Director of Ukrinterenergo Volodymyr Zinevych says that after terrorist attacks railroad crossings and bridges were blown up, the mines in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts were shut down, so the provision of thermal power plants (TPPs) with A and T grades of coal is very complicated. “The lack of fuel and, as a consequence, the lack of electricity generation, not only leads to an imbalance between production and consumption of electricity, but also to possible rolling blackouts of power supply for the population on the territory of Ukraine during the periods of maximum loads,” said Zinevych.

At the same time, Ukrinterenergo warned that in case Crimea does not observe the power consumption limits, the company “will be forced to turn off the supply lines to the peninsula entirely”.

Poorly prepared

Crimea began to experience problems with power supply immediately after Russian occupation. On March 23 due to repairs of the Kakhovka–Ostrovska and Melitopol–Dzhankoi power lines owned by Ukrenergo, power consumption in Crimea was limited to the level of 300 MW and at the same time the schedule of outages was introduced. After that, then First Deputy Premier of Crimea Rustam Temirgaliev promised that in May the peninsula would no longer depend on Ukrainian power. He said the peninsula would be provided with power with the help of mobile gas turbine power stations (GTPS). However, such units need gas in order to function and Crimea cannot provide itself with this gas by 100%, not to mention electricity.

However, the Crimean authorities did not keep their promise to make the peninsula independent from energy supply. Last Sunday, due to the limited supply of electricity from mainland Ukraine, certain consumers were totally cut off from power. Rolling blackouts affected Simferopol, Feodosiya, Kerch, Yalta and certain districts in Sevastopol.

Lack of resources

The peninsula has practically no means of production of its own electricity. In particular, the Crimean Generating Systems, which includes four thermal power plants, have an installed capacity of 327 MW. But these facilities were built during the Soviet era and the actual figures are far from those officially stated – the capacity of the station is barely 110 MW. In addition, Crimea has impressive power and wind power facilities. In particular, Activ Solar built there heliostations with a total capacity of 227.2 MW.

However, the output of power of these systems depends on the whims of nature and not on the desire of the Crimean authorities. Therefore, Crimea is miles away from energy independence: in 2013 of the consumed 7.1 bn kWh of electricity Crimea produced a mere 1.2 bn kWh, while nearly 6 bn kWh were supplied from the mainland of Ukraine.

Radiant with optimism

Until recently, Crimean authorities tried to show a measure of optimism. In particular, Minister of Fuel and Energy of Crimea Sergey Yegorov after introduction of restriction of the supply of electricity from the mainland said on August 31 that in order to provide electricity for the peninsula all internal generating facilities of Crimea have been engaged. “Crimean thermal generation is deployed and solar generation is also close to reaching the installed capacity. Wind turbines operate depending on the wind load. In addition, we turn on mobile gas turbine stations to level consumption peaks in the morning and in the evening. That will be sufficient,” he said.

However, it is still unclear whether the power supply to Crimea will be limited after the introduction of limits by Ukrinterenergo. DTEK Krymenergo, which is the main power distribution company on the peninsula, said it would apply the outage schedules if the controller of the Crimean power system demands their introduction. “To date, DTEK Krymenergo has not received any instructions on outage schedules,” said a representative of the company.

Despite the current optimism of the Crimean government, the situation may worsen this winter. After all, at the moment Crimea consumes 850 MW, but in winter the maximum load may increase to 1,200 MW. However, in late July of this year Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine Yuriy Prodan warned that in case of a power shortage on the continental part of Ukraine during the heating season due to the failure of the generating capacities Crimea will also be limited in terms of power supply.