Since October last year Ukraine has sustained more than a dozen missile and drone attacks targeting mostly energy infrastructure, Ambassador of Ukraine to T&T Sergiy Kyslytsya, the permanent representative of Ukraine to the United Nations told the Business Guardian magazine.
“Regular missile terror against critical energy infrastructure has been one of the main elements of the Russian war strategy,” Kyslytsya, said.
Kyslytsya said Russia has hit almost all thermal and hydropower plants in Ukraine.
High-voltage transmission units are also under attack, he said.
These attacks, Kyslytsya said, either destroyed or damaged energy facilities that cannot be repaired in the short term.
It is estimated that it will take months to restore them.
“As of the end of 2022, Russia occupied, damaged or destroyed about 50 per cent of the country’s power capacity, thousands of kilometres of electric, gas and heat networks, transformers, compressor units, heat-only boilers and other infrastructure facilities,” Kyslytsya said.
“Russia occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and the fifth largest in the world, since March 2022. Now they continue their attempts aimed at switching the ZNPP to the Russian power system,” he said.
Kyslytsya said 25 per cent of transmission units are located in the territories temporarily occupied by Russia before February 24, 2022 and 12 per cent were occupied as a result of the full-fledged invasion.
“Due to Russian targeted attacks on transmission system infrastructure, about 40 per cent of controlled transmission units were destroyed or damaged. Now, more than 40 overhead lines and more than 20 units with a voltage of 220–750 kV are damaged or disconnected due to continuous attacks and hostilities,” he said.
“The electricity distribution systems in Ukraine include more than 800 thousand km of overhead and cable lines and about 200,000 transformer units,” Kyslytsya said.
According to the most recent report by the Task Force comprised of representatives of the Ukrainian Government and the Energy Charter Secretariat, as of November, more than one thousand overhead lines and more than eight thousand transformers were damaged or disconnected due to continuous shelling and hostilities.
As a result, electricity and natural gas consumption decreased by 30-35 per cent compared to 2021.
“From four to five million consumers remained without electricity entirely or partially due to hostilities or consumption and capacity-limiting schedules at the end of 2022,” Kyslytsya said.
The Kyiv School of Economics has estimated that damages to the Ukrainian energy sector, including utilities and district heating sectors, have already reached at least US$9.1 billion.
The actual damages may be higher, Kyslytsya said, as there is no complete information on energy facilities located in the temporarily occupied territories.
Ukrainian businesses have also been affected by the Russian strikes on the energy system of Ukraine.
According to the survey by European Business, interruptions in electricity supply forced 66 per cent of companies to change their work schedule, 40 per cent—to reduce production or services, and 12 per cent—to close some offices or branches.
At the same time, only nine per cent of respondents said they suspended some activities or closed part of their premises, and only one per cent of companies fully stopped their work.
“The Ukrainian businesses do their best to adjust to the extraordinary circumstances,” Kyslytsya said.
The survey stated that 86 per cent of respondents said they installed generators and other means of uninterruptible power sources, while 65 per cent said they used alternative communication and internet access sources.
Only 10 per cent relocated business.
“It speaks volumes that 72 per cent of respondents indicated that prolonged blackouts would not force them to leave the Ukrainian market, while only eight per cent assumed such a possibility in the worst-case scenario,” Kyslytsya said.
Kyslytsya said the mitigation of the negative impact of Russia’s attacks on critical energy infrastructure facilities remains one of the priorities of the Ukrainian Government.
“We work on several tracks, including repair of the damaged facilities and enhancing the security of supply, as well as the implementation of energy efficiency measures to reduce the energy demand and to help Ukrainians to survive the winter under the constant interruption of electricity, heat, cold and hot water supply,” Kyslytsya said.
Kyslytsya said local municipalities setting up multiple ‘Unbreakable Points’ and implementing co-financing programs to purchase generators, as a war to tackle the issue.
Unbreakable Points are located throughout Ukraine and offer basic services such as electricity, water and first aid.
“Another example—in December, the Government announced a new energy efficiency initiative for households, which aims at replacing 50 million outdated incandescent bulbs with new LED ones for residential consumers. The proposed initiative is expected to reduce the demand on Ukraine’s power system by 1 GW or the equivalent of one nuclear reactor’s capacity,” Kyslytsya said.
“Ukraine also considers electricity import from continental Europe’s power system (ENTSO-E). At the same time, the import would not fully cover the deficit in Ukraine’s power system caused by Russia’s attacks. Therefore, we seek an innovative response to the current challenges. For instance, the Government carries out negotiations with foreign companies to place floating power plants of 300-400 MW in the territorial waters of Moldova and Romania to supply electricity to the Odesa region. The regional daily consumption there amounts to 800 - 1400 MW depending on the season,” Kyslytsya said.
Kyslytsya said Ukraine is also developing an alternative mobile generation.
“Since the beginning of 2022 people themselves have brought in 510,300 low-power generators. Our partners provide us with industrial generators of greater capacity for critical infrastructure,” Kyslytsya said.
“Gas turbine plants and gas reciprocating cogeneration plants could serve as another way out. We have Ukrainian-made units. Moreover, some of them have already been installed, now they are being restored. Although electricity produced by these units is not cheap, they could accelerate very quickly—up to three minutes. For comparison, an atomic unit accelerates for three days, and extinguishes in one and a half months.
“Both gas turbine plants and gas reciprocating cogeneration plants have small units, on average 50 MW. However, being put together—20 of them in a row, they could produce one thousand MW—the amount of an atomic unit,” he said.
The attacks and consequential damages to the power sector have resulted in the Ukrainian government’s decision to stop electricity export to the European Union from October last year.
In addition to this, he said there have been direct security threats for the neighbouring countries following Russian missile strikes on Ukraine.
“For instance, electricity supplies were cut off across large parts of Moldova on November 15, 2022, after the Russian attack downed a key power line that supplies this country. Russian missile attack on Ukraine hit a power line that supplied neighbouring Moldova with electricity,” Kyslytsya said.
“Actually, we have already started considering the recovery of the Ukrainian energy system. It will be a part of what should be the largest investment project in the history of Europe—the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine,” Kyslytsya said.
Kyslytsya said that Ukraine has now become the biggest construction site in Europe, and that it provides a wide range of opportunities for international partners to implement the best practices in the sphere of engineering, construction, transfer of technologies and energy.
“We count on the participation of our foreign partners and multilateral frameworks in implementation of the Ukraine’s Recovery Plan, presented at the 2022 Recovery Conference in Lugano. It consists of the following major national programs: defence and security, EU integration, clean and safe environment, energy independence and Green Deal, Boost business environment, macro-financial stability, logistics, modernisation of regions and housing, modernised social infrastructure, improved education system, upgraded healthcare system,” he said.
“The work on the development of the mechanism and priorities was continued during the Conference in Berlin in December last year.
Preparations for the next international conference on the recovery of Ukraine in June 2023 in London have already begun,” Kyslytsya said.
T&T has benefitted financially from the war in Ukraine as a result of higher energy prices.
Kyslytsya has however urged T&T to focus on diversification.
“It was my strong impression as an Ambassador that the Government of T&T as well as respective ministries do their best to move the economy of the country forward and that they are fully aware of how crucial diversification of the economy is for ensuring development and prosperity of the nation,” he said.
Kyslytsya is a career Ukrainian diplomat who has served now as the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations since February 2020 and the non-resident Ambassador of Ukraine to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago since October 2021.
He was in T&T last August during our 60th-anniversary celebrations.