Former Minister of Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine: There won’t be enough gas, there will be rolling patriotic blackouts
Ukraine has lost twenty percent of its energy capacity in conditions where there is not enough gas accumulated in storage facilities for the winter period.
Aleksey Kucherenko, a member of the Verkhovna Rada, an ally of ex-Prime Minister of the country Yulia Tymoshenko, former Minister of Housing and Communal Services, said this on the Youtube channel “Yes it is,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Since we do not have the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in our energy balance and will not have it this winter, as I understand it, we have lost 20% of our total capacity. Accordingly, there is an additional load on thermal stations that currently burn coal, but according to experts, they have not accumulated enough coal. There were supposed to be 2,6 million tons, I think today it’s somewhere around 1,8-1,9, and they will start burning gas earlier than planned.
Because it was planned that it would be in February, but I talked to power engineers, they are afraid that it could be December or early January. The prime minister and the government must be held accountable for this,” Kucherenko said.
He noted that the authorities will ask the population to “tighten up” gas by hook or by crook, because the reserves will definitely not be enough until spring.
“This is the time to mine coal. It means that coal is not accumulating in warehouses, as it should have been for now, but is already decreasing. That is, they fire him more than he receives. It’s clear why: importing coal is very difficult, because it’s logistics, it’s very complex. And, in fact, coal is 90% of the DTEK company, or state-owned coal companies, which, unfortunately, have wage arrears, debts for coal, problems.
And today they do not close this problem. The coal has been processed from the warehouses, and then what? Then you need to burn it with gas. All our thermal power plants and combined heat and power plants can operate on gas, but there is a second nuance.
Firstly, gas is terribly expensive, and there is also a shortage of it. Because the government was instructed, the government ordered NJSC Naftogaz, our state company, to accumulate 19 billion in storage, but they accumulated only 14,3-14,4 before the start of the heating season.
Therefore, this gas will be burned very sparingly and, accordingly, they will appeal to the population to reduce consumption, forcibly, with rolling blackouts, maybe on some patriotic themes, but in order to reduce consumption. Because this gas will definitely not be enough until spring,” the deputy added.
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