Electricity consumption in Ukraine, taking into account in-process losses in power grids, increased by 7.4% in January-April 2021 (by 3.742 billion kWh) compared to the same period in 2020, to 56.647 billion kWh, according to data from the Energy Ministry.
According to the calculations of Interfax-Ukraine, excluding in-process losses, electricity consumption for the specified period increased by 7.8% (by 3.203 billion kWh), to 44.27 billion kWh.
The country’s industry, excluding in-process losses, boosted electricity consumption by 6.2%, to 17.319 billion kWh. In particular, metallurgical industry consumed 9.355 billion kWh (3.8% more compared to January-April 2020), the fuel industry some 1.122 billion kWh (1.6% more), machine-building industry some 1.346 billion kWh (16.5% more), chemical and petrochemical some 1.463 billion kWh (10.5% more), food and processing some 1.406 billion kWh (0.7% more), building materials some 770.9 million kWh (18.2% more), others some 1.860 billion kWh (11.8% more).
In addition, agricultural enterprises consumed 1.211 billion kWh (6.1% more), transport some 2.176 million kWh (5.6% more), construction some 434 million kWh (25.4% more).
In January-April 2021, the country’s population consumed 14.593 billion kWh (9.3% more), households some 5.304 billion kWh (5.8% more), other non-industrial consumers some 2.990 billion (14.8% more).
According to the results of the first three months, the share of industry in the total volume of electricity consumption decreased from 40% to 39.3%, while the share of the population increased from 32.7% to 33.1%.
In April 2021, electricity consumption, taking into account in-process losses, increased by 9.7% (by 1. 89 billion kWh) compared to the same month of 2020, to 12.27 billion kWh, excluding in-process losses, by 12.2% (by 1.109 billion kWh), to 10.191 billion kWh.
Founder and owner of the Serum Institute of India, Cyrus Poonawalla, during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, assured that Ukraine will be among the priority countries that will receive the contracted vaccine as soon as the Indian government restores its export.
CoviShield company’s vaccine against coronavirus disease was the first that Ukraine received for vaccinations. The owner of the Serum Institute noted that India had already supplied Ukraine with half a million doses of the vaccine, the website of the President’s Office reported on Friday.
In turn, Zelensky invited Poonawalla to explore the possibilities of cooperation between his company and Ukrainian partners in order to jointly develop and produce medicines, medical products and vaccines in Ukraine, including those from COVID-19.
As reported, the incidence rate of COVID-19 in India has led to delays in the supply of up to 90 million doses of vaccines from that country. The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, is a key supplier of vaccines to the international COVAX vaccine distribution program.
Ukraine has agreed with the Indian manufacturer Serum Institute to increase the supply of vaccines against coronavirus (COVID-19) disease to 15 million doses, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has said.
“During negotiations with the owner of the Serum Institute, Mr. Cyrus Poonawalla, an agreement was reached to increase the supply from 10 million to 15 million doses of vaccine,” he said at a briefing on Tuesday.
Stepanov also said that “there is a proposal from the Chinese company Sinovac.”
“We have reached an agreement with them to increase supplies and additional contracting,” he said.
Stepanov said that Ukraine currently has contacts for the supply of 42 million doses, but intends to increase the agreement to 48 million doses in 2021, which will allow 70% of the adult population to be vaccinated.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation between JSC Ukrzaliznytsia and Stadler on May 7 following talks with representatives of the Office of the President of Ukraine, the Ministry of Strategic Industries and the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine.
Currently, Stadler will be looking for a site for the construction of a plant for the production of suburban trains and city trams. The next steps will be technology transfer and employee training to ensure product quality that meets the company’s standards. This plant will focus on domestic Ukrainian consumers, participation in tenders, as well as on the export of products to other countries, the President’s Office said on its website on Friday.
“We fully support such investments in our country. Ukraine is interested in such cooperation, and we discussed such opportunities during the official visit of the President of the Swiss Confederation to Ukraine,” Zelensky said at a meeting with Peter Christoph Spuhler, President of the Board of Directors of one of the world’s leading rolling stock manufacturers – the Swiss company Stadler CIS AG, and Alexander Luft, CEO of Stadler CIS AG.
Cooperation with Stadler will also contribute to the implementation of the project of high-quality suburban railway service City Express, the first stage of which is to be implemented in Kyiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv, the message reads.
Metinvest Group, taking into account associated companies and joint ventures, is expected to increase the payment of income tax by more than seven times in January-June 2021, year-over-year, to UAH 10.2 billion, a source in the tax authorities told Interfax-Ukraine.
In turn, Metinvest confirmed to the agency information about a significant increase in income tax payments in the first half of 2021.
“Enterprises of the Metinvest group will pay income tax in the first half of 2021, replenishing the national budget by UAH 10.2 billion (compared to the first half of 2020, the income tax paid was about UAH 1.4 billion). Thus, according to the results of the first half of the year, income tax payments increased by 7.4 times. This unprecedented increase in tax payments during coronavirus pandemic will help support the cities where Metinvest enterprises operate, pay salaries in full and on time communal and medical workers,” the company told the agency.
At the same time, the group said that Metinvest is one of the largest taxpayers in Ukraine. Thus, in 2020, the company increased its tax payments by 5%, to UAH 22.1 billion year-over-year. Earlier, the group said that over 15 years of its work, it transferred UAH 165 billion to the budgets of all levels.
Electricity generation in the Integrated Power System of Ukraine in January-April 2021 increased by 5.8% (by 2.978 billion kWh), year-over-year, to 54.616 billion kWh, according to the Energy Ministry.
According to the calculations of Interfax-Ukraine, nuclear power plants (NPPs) have increased electricity generation by 0.4% in four months, to 29.7 billion kWh. In particular, electricity generation at Zaporizhia NPP amounted to 13.569 billion kWh (more by 22.5% compared to January-April 2020), Yuzhnoukrainsk NPP some 5.810 billion kWh (less by 24.2%), Rivne NPP some 5.32 billion kWh (less by 26.6%), Khmelnytsky NPP some 4.597 billion kWh (more by 39.5%).
Thermal power plants (TPPs), as well as combined heat and power plants (CHPPs) and cogeneration plants increased their output by 9.1%, to 18.39 billion kWh. In particular, TPPs increased generation by 15.9%, to 13.29 billion kWh, while CHPPs and cogeneration plants cut it by 5.2%, to 5.11 billion kWh.
Hydro power plants and pumped storage power plants increased generation by 60.9%, to 3.676 billion kWh, while block stations cut it by 6.5%, to 587 million kWh.
Electricity generation by alternative sources (wind farms, solar power plants, biomass) decreased by 0.1%, to 3.306 billion kWh.
The share of NPPs in the structure of electricity generation was 53.1% (55.9% in January-April 2020), TPPs, CHPPs and cogeneration plants some 33% (32%), hydro power plants and pumped storage power plants some 6.7% (4.4%), block stations some 1.1% (1.2%), alternative sources some 6.1% (6.4%).
In April 2021, electricity generation in Ukraine increased by 11.9% (by 1.342 billion kWh), year-over-year, to 12.607 billion kWh.
In addition, the supply of thermal energy in January-April 2021 increased by14.8% (by 1.608 million Gcal), year-over-year, to 12.450 million Gcal.
