Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko signed a decree authorizing the start of the process of resumption of electricity exports in conditions of a surplus of generating capacity.
“The Ukrainian energy system has been operating without consumer restrictions with a capacity surplus for almost two months now. We achieved this result thanks to the titanic work of power engineers, our international partners, helping to restore the system. The most difficult winter is over. The next step is to open the export of electricity, which will attract additional financial resources for the necessary reconstruction of the destroyed and repair of the damaged energy infrastructure, “- said Galushchenko, as quoted in a message of the Ministry of Energy in Telegram channel late Friday night.
At the same time, the energy minister stressed that meeting the power needs of Ukrainian consumers is a priority.
“The export of electricity will work under the condition of providing the resource to Ukrainian consumers and may be terminated in the event of a change in the situation,” the minister assured.
As reported, export of electric power, which began last June, was stopped by order of the Ministry of Energy since October 11 after the beginning of massive attacks of Russian invaders on the energy system of Ukraine. According to the Ministry of Energy, the export of electricity to Moldova and EU countries during this time amounted to 2.6 billion kWh. Exporters of electricity directed 80% of the income from exports to maintain tariffs for the population within the framework of special obligations. As a result, according to calculations of the ministry, 2.8 billion hryvnias were allocated for this purpose.
The allowed European network of transmission system operators ENTSO-E capacity for exports is 400 MW, Ukraine on its part seeks to increase this capacity by several times.
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.
