Situation in power system worse, several generation facilities under emergency repairs – Ukrenergo

Early on January 23, the situation in Ukraine's power system significantly deteriorated after several generation facilities were forced into emergency repairs, with emergency power outages imposed in most regions.

Ukraine's national grid operator Ukrenergo announced this on Facebook, Ukrinform reports.

"The main reason for the forced outages is the aftermath of massive missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian power plants and transmission and distribution substations. The power system is still recovering from the damage inflicted. This morning the situation worsened because several generation facilities, unfortunately, entered emergency repairs at the same time," the statement said.

Ukrenergo explained that the equipment is operating at the very limit of its capacity. Because of previous damage and destruction, the surviving power units are carrying an enormous overload to keep the country supplied with electricity and therefore require shutdowns for repairs.

To preserve the balance in the power system and prevent uncontrolled blackouts that could threaten long-term damage to high-voltage equipment, dispatchers had to take emergency measures and apply emergency outages.

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Energy workers are already carrying out restoration work. Repair crews are doing everything possible to return generating capacity to the grid as quickly as possible.

"We expect that in the near future restoration work at some facilities will be completed, which will allow us to lift emergency restrictions and return to planned hourly outage schedules in most regions," Ukrenergo said, urging consumers to use electricity as rationally as possible today.

Due to the difficult situation in the power system, emergency outages are being applied in most regions of Ukraine on January 23. Previously published hourly outage schedules by regional energy companies are not in effect. Emergency outages will be canceled as soon as the situation in the power system stabilizes.