Full restoration of damaged substations in Odesa region could take up to two years – DTEK
That is according to Dmytro Hryhoriev, CEO at DTEK Odesa Grids, Ukrinform reports.
According to Hryhoriev, 48,000 customers in the Odesa region currently remain without electricity as a result of enemy attacks.
"To restore power supply to these consumers, not much time is needed anymore – we are at a certain stage of the work. But to fully restore the damaged substations in the Odesa region, it will take one to two years," Hryhoriev said.
He stressed that the enemy is systematically attacking the energy system. Even before the massive strike on December 13, when 60% of the region was left without power, 20 substations in the region had already been damaged.
"We need equipment for restoration. We have to use solutions that are not described in textbooks. If the applied schemes were drawn out, one could probably even obtain a patent. In terms of manufacturing time, transformers take the longest to produce – six to eight months. That is why there is a certain queue for this equipment," Hryhoriev said.
He added that forced emergency power outages are in effect in Odesa to avoid overloading damaged equipment. Unfortunately, these outages cannot be predicted, evenly distributed among all addresses, or scheduled. Energy workers are forced to disconnect customers when they see network overloads and restore power when consumption decreases. The higher the consumption, the longer the restrictions last.
On December 13, Russian forces carried out a massive attack on energy infrastructure in southern Ukraine. As a result, the Odesa region, the right-bank part of the Kherson region, and part of the Mykolaiv region were left without electricity. Almost all critical infrastructure in the region was reconnected by December 15, and power gradually returned to residents' homes. However, on the morning of December 25, due to an accident, parts of Odesa and the Odesa district were again left without electricity, which also caused water supply disruptions in some areas.
