Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, has restored two-thirds of its own generating capacities lost due to recent Russian attacks, Deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration Petro Pantelieiev said on July 6.
The Russian strikes damaged more than half of the city's generating capacity, Pantelieiev added.
In recent months, Russia has intensified its attacks against Ukraine's critical infrastructure in a renewed assault against the country's energy grid.
The Trypillia Thermal Power Plant was completely destroyed in a Russian strike on Ukrainian energy infrastructure on April 11. The plant is less than 30 kilometers south of Kyiv and was the main power supplier for Kyiv, Zhytomyr, and Cherkasy oblasts.
"We are planning to decentralize the electricity and heat production system by building small and medium-sized thermal power plants," Pantelieiev said.
Liliane Bivings
Local authorities are also developing a cluster of autonomous facilities to cope with a possible power outage, according to the official.
"For example, all the city's hospitals are equipped with generators, more than a hundred boiler houses of the district heating system have generators, and 175 pump rooms can also be quickly connected to autonomous power sources," he added.
As a result of the attacks on energy infrastructure, Ukraine began implementing rolling blackouts on May 15.
Due to dwindling energy supplies caused by Russian attacks, Ukraine's largest privately-owned energy provider, DTEK, has warned that Ukrainians may only have electricity for 6-7 hours per day in the upcoming winter.
In a "worst-case" scenario in which Ukraine is unable to repair damaged energy facilities and prevent future attacks, Ukrainians could experience up to 20 hours of blackouts a day, DTEK Executive Director Dmytro Sakharuk told the Kyiv Independent in an interview on June 9.
Myroslava Tanska-Vikulova
