High-voltage line between Ukraine and Moldova repaired – Shmyhal
At 02:00 on February 1, specialists completed repairs on a high-voltage line connecting Ukraine with Moldova. This adds 500 megawatts of capacity to help stabilize energy supply in Ukraine's southern regions.
First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy Denys Shmyhal said this in a Facebook post following a meeting of the energy headquarters, Ukrinform reports.
Shmyhal noted that the Ukrainian Energy Ministry is accelerating the deployment of cogeneration units.
In the Kyiv region, a 1.5-megawatt unit was brought online yesterday, and another 1-megawatt unit is expected to start on February 2. In total, the Kyiv region added about 4.5 megawatts just in January.
At the same time, measures continue to simplify conditions for deploying local energy generation in the regions. To this end, the government has expanded the 5-7-9% program: now loan funds can be used to purchase cogeneration units, and the maximum investment loan has been increased to UAH 250 million.
The SvitloDIM program has also launched, offering UAH 100,000-300,000 in assistance to co-owners of apartment buildings for the purchase of generators, batteries, inverters, solar panels, and other equipment. For the first phase, the government allocated UAH 800 million. The pilot project will start in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, with plans to scale the program to other regions later.
Meeting participants also reviewed the weekly performance of energy companies and set priorities for the coming days.
Amid a new wave of severe cold, Shmyhal stressed to local and regional authorities the need to accelerate the restoration of heat and electricity supply.
"We continue coordination to strengthen the state's energy resilience," Shmyhal said.
Early on Saturday, January 31, a technical disruption between the electricity systems of Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine caused a cascade outage in Ukraine's power grid, triggering automatic protections at substations.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine later confirmed that the emergency was not caused by a cyberattack.
Photo credit: Denys Shmyhal / Telegram