Kyiv loses its electricity generation capacity due to Russian attacks, expert says
It will take months to restore Kyiv's own electricity generation capacity, so power cuts will continue in the city for the foreseeable future.
This assessment was made at a briefing by Oleksandr Kharchenko, Managing Director of the Energy Industry Research Center, according to a Ukrinform correspondent.
He stressed that the period since January 9 has been the most difficult for the capital since the start of the full-scale war.
“Now there is virtually no power generation within Kyiv, which significantly complicates the operation of the power transmission network. Power generation within Kyiv was, to a certain extent, a mainstay for meeting the needs of a huge energy hub,” Kharchenko said.
The expert noted that fully supplying the capital from external sources is a difficult task from a technical standpoint, even in peacetime.
Kharchenko also predicts that the full supply of heat to Kyiv residents' homes can be restored on February 1-2, but there may be problems with connecting individual buildings, in particular due to the poor condition of internal networks.
“It will not be possible to restore electricity generation in Kyiv in the near future; we are talking about months. I think Kyiv will have power outages for quite a long time,” the expert said.
According to his assessment, the transition from temporary power outage schedules to hourly power outages will take two to three weeks, but only if the power supply system works well and the overall trend is favorable.
As reported, Kyiv switched to temporary power outage schedules at the beginning of the day on January 29.