Ukraine restores nearly half of power generation wiped out by Russia
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Russian forces destroyed 9 gigawatts (GW) of Ukraine's power generation, but the war-torn country has managed to already rebuild 4 GW, Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said on April 4.
In Moscow's heaviest campaign of the full-scale war, Russian drones and missiles tore apart thermal, heat and power, and hydroelectric power plants, plunging Ukraine into a humanitarian crisis as millions were left without heating and power in sub-arctic conditions.
Ukraine's peak energy consumption over the winter is 18 GW, meaning Russia took out half of that. In January, the country's power generation capacity was only around 11GW.
The repair works have been ongoing since the start of Russia's campaign in the fall. Since then, over 14,000 energy workers have restored 85% of thermal power plant generation and 66% of hydroelectric plants, and repaired damaged transformers, noted Shmyhal.
On top of that, Ukraine continues to implement distributed energy generation and increase energy storage instillations.
The attacks left Ukraine with no choice but to import electricity from its neighbors like Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. Ukraine increased its import capacity with the EU in January, and imported a total of 3.6 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) between December and February.
Additionally, the government imported 4.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas — used to heat homes — after Russia took down over half of Ukraine's gas production capacity, Shmyhal said.
Ukraine's allies came to aid during the crisis, with the newly formed Energy Ramstein format launched over the winter. Over 40 countries sent generators, transformers, cogeneration units, and other equipment. Allies also raised 602.5 million euros ($700 million) for the Ukraine Energy Support Fund.
"Partners now clearly understand and better appreciate our main needs," Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.
But while the winter is over, Russia hasn't stopped targeting Ukraine's energy sector.
The country's largest oil and gas company, state-owned Naftogaz, came under fire again on April 4 when drones targeted its Poltava sites. The company has been attacked over 40 times this year, said CEO Serhii Koretskyi on social media.
Energy chiefs have urged the government to start preparations for the next winter as quickly as possible.
The government must have a full list of critical equipment and clear sources of funding by May in order to have enough time to prepare for winter, Maxim Timchenko, CEO of Ukraine's largest private energy firm DTEK, said in February.
Producing certain equipment can take as long as a year, while Ukraine's domestic energy equipment production is hindered by a depleted workforce.
