Power consumption in Ukraine down 30% since Feb 24 invasion

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine, electricity consumption has decreased by 30%.

That’s according to Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, Chairman of the Board at NEC Ukrenergo, who spoke at a round table in Kyiv, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Since the full-scale invasion, consumption has fallen by about 30%, adding a low-consumption surplus to the system's normal seasonal surplus from April to September," Kudrytskyi said.

According to the top manager, for the basic scenario of passing the heating season (provided that the power system will operate as it does at the moment), there is enough capacity in Ukraine to cover the projected demand.

At the same time, taking into account the temporary occupation of Zaporizhia NPP and Kakhovka HPP, as well as given the location of some TPPs near the demarcation line, Ukrenergo is modeling "stress scenarios" that involve the loss of part of the generating capacities. Kudrytskyi noted that this allows calculating ways to cover demand in various crisis circumstances.

In particular, the scenario of greater use of coal or greater gas consumption for power generation is being looked into. "If necessary, we can import electricity from Europe – the volumes of electricity that we will lack in stressful scenarios, that’s if they occur," Kudrytskyi reminded.

As reported, according to the Ministry of Energy, current preparations for the heating season are proceeding according to plan as schedules for both the repair campaign and the accumulation of energy resources have been approved.