Stabilization of the Ukrainian energy system and a certain reserve of capacity allow discussing the opening of electricity exports to Europe, Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko said.
“The issue of opening exports is already on the table today. It is being considered,” the minister said on the air of the national telethon “Unified News” on Friday.
Depending on the volume of imports, he said, it could bring Ukraine up to $70 million a month and help restore energy facilities after Russian attacks.
At the same time, the head of the Energy Ministry stressed that Ukraine would refuse to export electricity in case of shortages.
As earlier reported, export of electric power was stopped by order of the Minister of Energy since October 11, 2022, after the beginning of massive Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy system. The capacity allowed by European network of transmission system operators ENTSO-E for export is 400 MW, for import – 850 MW.
The head of Ukrhydroenergo, Igor Sirota, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine noted that Ukraine has been experiencing a 24-hour power surplus for several weeks in a row, which would be advisable to sell. Nevertheless, he stressed that “there is a lot of politics in this issue,” as there are a number of consumers who do not receive electricity. At the same time, the head of the general company explained that such consumers are deprived of power supply not because of the resource shortage, but precisely because of low network capacity.
It is noteworthy that the situation in Ukraine has deteriorated in the last two years, according to the information supplied by the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine (SOE).
Thus, Ukrenergo increases the daytime limits for the second day in a row, the nighttime limits are relatively sharply increased after the insignificant decrease on Monday.
According to DTEK’s report in the group’s Telegram Channel on Monday evening, the average time of no light in Kyiv throughout January 23-29 was 4 h. 50 min, 4 h. 51 min. and 4 h. 58 min, depending on one of the three groups. That is, 77-80% of days the residents of Kiev were with light.
DTEK noted that the blackout was uniform both among the groups and within each of them.
The information on the application of hourly schedules for tomorrow has already been made public by most network operators. In the Odessa region, emergency shutdowns will continue to be applied due to serious damage to the energy infrastructure as a result of the Russian attack on January 26. Prior to it, such blackouts were applied in the region only at night. As reported, DTEK forecasts that the repair work that would allow the region to return to stabaggering will continue at least until the end of January.
Slovakia’s electricity imports for Saturday rose 26.16 percent over Friday to 9,296 MWh, a new record high since it actually began in January, according to data on the website of Continental Europe System Operators Network ENTSO-E.
According to the website, imports will be 388 MW each in the 20 hours of the day and 383-385 MW in the remaining hours.
According to data on Ukrenergo’s electronic auction platform, the largest interstate cross-section capacity for imports for that day was booked by D.Trading – 450 MW for all hours of the day. In addition, 9 MW for all hours of the day was booked by Augusta Trading and 7 MW by ERU Trading. For tomorrow, the capacity booked by D. Trading and Augusta remains at the same level, with ERU Trading increasing it to 8 MW, plus 30 MW booked by DE Trading for all hours.
The cross-section price was still 0 UAH/MWh.
In total, Ukrenergo has been auctioning off 500-600 MW of cross-section capacity, which has almost doubled since January 26, depending on the hour of the day.
As reported, Ukraine, as ENTSO-E website testifies, started to receive imported electricity on January 15.
On January 15, 655 MWh, on January 20 – 220 MWh, on January 21 – 6,963 MWh, on January 22 – 6,672 MWh, on January 25 – 99 MWh, on January 26 – 3,813 MWh, on January 27 – 7,368 MWh. Total – 25790 MWh.
The most active importer is D.Trading. Besides it, ERU Trading, Nackstrade, as well as DE Trading, NAP-Comunity, Augusta, and U. Comodities booked the section in small amounts.
DTEK, for its part, said on January 25 that it had started importing electricity from Europe this month, and according to its calculations, the current electricity transmission capacity allows it to import about 500 million kWh per month, which corresponds to the monthly consumption of 2 million households.
According to the head of Ukrenergo Volodymyr Kudrytskyy, the imports, carried out by the trader DTEK and other companies, reduce the load on the energy system, but cannot fully cover the deficit of electricity.
According to the network operators, the limits of electricity consumption allocated to the regions allow to cover about half of the necessary resource, in Kiev – about 64%.
Electricity imports on January 21 will amount to almost 7 thou MWh – it is 290-291 MWh every hour, according to data on the website of the Continental Europe System Operators Network ENTSO-E.
According to the information, the electricity is supplied from Slovakia.
As reported on January 21, the interstate section of 290MW for every hour of the day was booked by “D.Trading”, 5MW for all hours of “ERU Trading”, as well as 1MW for three hours from 16:00 to 19:00″ August.
For Jan. 22, D. Trading and ERU Trading booked the same capacity plus 1 MW each for the two nightly hours of NAP Community.
A total of 300-350 MW was auctioned, depending on the hour of the day, with a buyout price of 0 UAH/MWh.
According to DaM Europe in the established JSC “Market Operator” Telegram channel, the average price for electricity on the Slovak Republic on January 21 – 130.83 EUR / MWh, in Ukraine, the price of electricity BASE period on the DAM – 83.71 EUR / MWh.
The import supply on January 21 is the third in January reflected on the ENTSO-E website. The first was on January 15 – a total of 655 MWh: three hours of 50 MW (from 02:00 – 05:00), the following hours of 125 MW, 170 MW and 150 MW, and from 21:00-22:00 another 20 MW. D. Trading (130 MW each for all hours), ERU Trading (20 MW each for all hours), and Nextrade (20-30 MW depending on the hour) booked the section for that day. The second was for January 20, 220 MW in the last hour of the day, the cross-section for which was bought by D.Trading.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in early January approved a regulation on the peculiarities of electricity imports during the autumn-winter period of 2022/2023, which as an incentive for businesses to import more expensive European resource gave guarantees of non-disconnection on the volume of imported electricity. According to Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko at a briefing on 20 January, in order to receive guarantees of non-disconnection, businesses must import a significant amount of electric power in accordance with their consumption, indicating that “it cannot be 1 MW”.
Kyiv is supplied with electricity by less than half, while a significant deficit remains in the energy system as a whole due to Russian terrorist shelling, NEC Ukrenergo said.
“As of this morning, there remains a significant capacity deficit in the energy system. Less than half of the consumption needs in the capital are being met, the priority is to supply power to critical infrastructure,” Ukrenergo said in its Telegram feed on Tuesday.
At the same time, the company expects that on Tuesday it will be possible to turn on certain equipment that will somewhat improve the level of supply reliability, reduce the power deficit in the capital’s power grid and power more consumers.
They drew attention to the fact that UAV bombardment of main grid facilities in the central region, which occurred on the night of December 19, as well as shelling in eastern Ukraine led to further damage to energy infrastructure and worsened the situation with power supply, in particular, in the central region and Kiev.
“Repair crews of Ukrenergo, generation and distribution system operators are making every effort to improve power supply,” the NEC noted.
As reported, the general director of the power supply company YASNO Sergey Kovalenko said Monday evening that the needs of the population in the capital can be met only by 20%, as a result, according to him, 10 hours without light in the capital – the reality at the moment.
The government has given the Ukrainian dairy sector enterprises priority in power supply, now. dairy plants will receive electricity next after critical infrastructure facilities and enterprises of the military-industrial complex
According to the website of the industry association “Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine” (SMPU), giving the industry priority in power supply speaks to the government’s recognition of the importance of dairy processing for the country’s food security.
“UMSU thanks Prime Minister Denis Shmygal for giving dairies priority in determining groups with priority power supply. Milk processing plants are categorized as a business that produces critical goods and products and are included in the third highest priority group, after critical infrastructure groups and facilities that work for national defense,” the organization said in a statement on its website.
The JMPU also asked the government to accelerate the provision of generators to dairy companies on terms that would ensure the availability of this equipment and help the industry maintain uninterrupted operation in conditions of power outage.
As previously reported, the SMPU urged the Ministry of Energy and NEC “Ukrenergo” to agree on the schedule and amount of electricity supplied to the dairy processing enterprises of the industry, in order to maintain the milk production and processing industries and prevent a reduction of livestock.
In early November, the association appealed to the Office of the President, the regional military administrations (RMA), the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Agricultural Policy with a request to provide uninterrupted power supply to the dairy plants. This is necessary because the enterprises, due to regular blackouts, are at risk of spoiling hundreds of tons of raw milk, or they will be forced to stop buying raw milk, which may force the related branch of milk production to reduce the number of cows.
